A federal judge halted tree cutting at a Washington, D.C., golf course after crews removed hundreds of trees just hours after the government gave notice it planned to do the work.
Quick Take
- Crews cut down between 430 and 529 trees at East Potomac Park over a holiday weekend, according to court filings.
- The government gave notice at about 4:55 p.m. Friday, right before cutting began Saturday, leaving little time for objections.
- U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes ordered an emergency halt and demanded sworn testimony from park officials.
- The National Park Service says the work follows a 2019 plan to restore the course’s historic look, not the administration’s newer redevelopment plan.
- The judge said the government “lost its credibility” and is weighing new rules requiring 72 hours’ notice before future work.
Weekend Tree Removal Sparks Court Fight
Crews began cutting down trees at East Potomac Park’s golf course on a Saturday in October, just one day after Department of Justice lawyers told the court the work would start. The D.C. Preservation League, which sued over the project, says crews removed 529 trees, including “healthy, mature oaks and maples.” Government lawyers later told the court around 430 trees had been cut, with 299 more planned.
Judge Ana Reyes had already told the government to give notice before removing more than 10 trees or doing other major work at the site. The late-Friday notice, filed less than 24 hours before the cutting began, left preservation advocates almost no time to ask a court to step in before the trees came down.
Judge Orders Immediate Stop to Cutting
Reyes reacted by temporarily barring any more tree removal and calling an emergency hearing. She ordered National Park Service superintendent Kevin Griess to testify under oath about why the trees were cut and who approved it. She later extended the pause and said she was considering a rule requiring 72 hours’ notice before any future work at the site.
News outlets described the hearing as unusually heated, with Reyes called “furious” and “beyond disappointed” in the government’s conduct. She reportedly told government lawyers the administration had lost credibility with the court over how the removal was handled.
Government Says Work Follows Older Restoration Plan
The National Park Service says the tree removal carries out a 2019 cultural-landscape report, separate from President Trump’s proposed golf-course redevelopment. Officials say the goal is restoring the course’s historic links-style design and reopening views toward landmarks like the Washington Monument, not building a new championship venue.
Griess testified the plan “isn’t just about safety” but about returning the park to its “original historic state of a links golf course.” Deputy Director Frank Lands testified there was no specific emergency and described the cutting as “normal course of business,” not a rushed response to the lawsuit.
Lands also testified that Interior Department Deputy Chief of Staff Gregory Wischer ordered him to proceed with the removal on October 5, though the full chain of approval and planning documents behind that order have not been made public. The Interior Department separately called the work routine maintenance targeting hazard, invasive, and dying trees.
Questions That Remain Unanswered
Reported tree counts shift between accounts, ranging from 430 to more than 500 to 529, a gap that has not been reconciled with an official inventory. It is also not yet clear whether the trees removed were the non-contributing, invasive, or dying vegetation the government describes, or whether some were healthy specimens tied to the park’s historic design, as plaintiffs claim.
The case highlights a broader tension playing out across federal land disputes: agencies often frame large projects as routine maintenance or old plans finally being carried out, while critics see rushed, hard-to-reverse changes slipping through with minimal public notice. Whether this was lawful restoration or an end-run around a judge’s order is now for the court to decide.
Reyes has pushed the next hearing to Monday as she reviews sworn testimony and considers whether to impose stricter notice rules going forward. Until then, all tree cutting at East Potomac, including routine maintenance, remains blocked under her order.
Sources:
nbcnews.com, cbsnews.com, newstribune.com, golfdigest.com
