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Washington — A federal judge on Tuesday barred the Trump administration from removing trees at East Potomac Golf Links in Washington, D.C., for another two weeks after hundreds of trees were felled at the historic public course over the weekend.
U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes said in a brief order that the Department of the Interior and National Park Service may not cut down any further trees at East Potomac through Oct. 26. She also said that through that date, the Trump administration must provide the court and plaintiffs, the D.C. Preservation League and two local golfers, with three business days’ notice before “making any irreparable modification to any permanent form or feature” of the course.
Reyes said the D.C. Preservation League and golfers will likely be harmed without relief. The plaintiffs are challenging President Trump’s planned overhaul of East Potomac.
“The administration has time and again tried to avoid the law in their mad rush toward converting a public recreation space to a high-end golf course and today’s order will stop them from doing further irreparable harm to a precious public resource,” lawyers for the D.C. Preservation League and two residents said. “We are pleased that the court intervened and will prevent additional work while we seek more lasting relief.”
The brief order comes after the judge fiercely chastised the Justice Department during a nearly four-hour-long hearing Monday. She called the hearing after learning Friday afternoon that the National Park Service planned to remove an estimated 529 trees at East Potomac golf course as part of a “tree management and cultural landscape rehabilitation project.”
The D.C. Preservation League then told the court in a filing Sunday that the crew had cut down all 529 trees on Saturday alone, including “healthy, mature oaks and maples,” and had planned to remove “hundreds” more “imminently,” but rain impacted the work.
A Justice Department lawyer, Marissa Piropato, told Reyes that 430 trees in total were felled. Another roughly 99 have been identified for removal, she said.
For months, Reyes had reiterated to the government that it must provide advance notice to the plaintiffs and the court of plans to conduct any construction or similar activity at East Potomac, allowing her the opportunity to review that action and, if warranted, issue an order.
But the Justice Department did not submit a filing about the planned tree removals until just before 5 p.m. Friday.
“You did not do your best. You did your absolute worst,” Reyes told Piropato of the Justice Department’s efforts to notify the court and plaintiffs of the planned tree removals.
The judge told Piropato and other government lawyers that they “lost credibility.”
She ordered Kevin Griess, superintendent of the National Mall and Memorial Parks, and Frank Lands, deputy director of operations for the National Park Service, to testify about what led to the felling of the 430 trees at the course and who gave the go-ahead for the removals to take place Saturday.
Reyes scheduled another hearing for Oct. 19 and ordered Jessica Bowron, acting director of the National Park Service, and Gregory Wischer, deputy chief of staff at the Interior Department, to appear.
