It has played host to civil rights marches, presidential inaugurations, fireworks displays and decades of picnics. But in recent years the National Mall, envisioned more than a century ago as a lush carpet of green connecting the nation’s most treasured monuments, has looked more like a West Texas dust bowl. Now National Park Service officials are trying to teach the nearly 30 million people who gather here each year a difficult lesson: Tread softly or keep off the grass.
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