Judge blocks Trump administration from cutting down trees on DC golf course for 2 weeks

Washington — A federal judge on Tuesday barred the Trump administration from cutting down trees at the East Potomac Golf Links in Washington, D.C., for two more weeks after hundreds of trees were cut down at the historic public course over the weekend.

U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes said in a brief order that the Interior Department and National Park Service can no longer cut down trees in East Potomac until Oct. 26. She also said that until then, the Trump administration must provide the court and the plaintiffs, the DC Preservation League and two local golfers, three business days’ notice before “making any irreparable alteration to any permanent form or feature” of the course.

Reyes said the DC Preservation League and golfers would likely be injured without relief. Plaintiffs challenge President Trump’s planned overhaul of East Potomac.

“The administration has repeatedly attempted to avoid the law in its mad rush to convert a public recreational space into a high-end golf course and today’s order will prevent them from causing further irreparable damage to a valuable public resource,” attorneys for the DC Preservation League and two residents said. “We are pleased that the court has intervened and will prevent further work while we seek a more lasting remedy.”

The brief order comes after the judge violently reprimanded the Justice Department during a nearly four-hour hearing Monday. She called the hearing after learning Friday afternoon that the National Park Service planned to remove approximately 529 trees on the East Potomac Golf Course as part of a “tree management and cultural landscape rehabilitation project.”

The DC Preservation League later told the court in a filing Sunday that the team 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 a total of 430 trees were cut down. About 99 other people have been identified for deportation, she said.

For months, Reyes had reiterated to the government that it must notify plaintiffs and the court in advance of any proposed construction or similar activity in East Potomac, giving it the opportunity to review that action and, if warranted, issue an order.

But the Justice Department did not submit a brief on the planned tree removals until shortly before 5 p.m. Friday.

“You didn’t do your best. You did your best,” 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 had “lost their 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 on the course and who gave the green light 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 of the Interior Department, to appear.