East Potomac Golf Links has undergone many changes since golfers began there more than a century ago. Few, however, have transformed the landscape as quickly as what happened last weekend.
In a matter of hours on October 10, National Park Service crews cut down more than 400 trees on two large portions of the federally owned course. On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes ordered a halt to the cuts until at least October 26, ruling that the NPS likely violated federal environmental law and warning of irreversible damage.
“Destroyed trees cannot be replaced,” she wrote.
In a document drafted Friday, the government urged Reyes to “end the drama now” and lift his order regarding the felling of trees, accusing the court of overstepping its authority. NPS also revealed that the project is larger than expected: About 729 trees are expected to be removed, with about 300 remaining standing.
Satellite images of East Potomac Golf Links from Oct. 8 and 13 show views before and after the Park Service removed hundreds of trees. Source: Satellite imagery via Planet Labs PBC.
Areas where
the trees were
deleted
Source: Satellite imagery via Planet Labs PBC
Areas where
the trees were
deleted
Source: Satellite imagery via Planet Labs PBC
According to the filing, crews removed approximately 369 trees from Area A, which extends from the 17th green to approximately the middle of the 16th fairway on the Blue Course. They cut down another 63 trees in Area B, which extends from behind the 12th green to the 13th hole and into the first half of the 14th. That puts the government’s current estimate of felled trees at about 432, although the NPS has cautioned that it plans to verify that number by counting stumps.
Unlike trees that the NPS removed earlier this year because they were dead, dying, dangerous or invasive, the trees targeted last weekend were healthy and non-invasive, according to testimony from NPS officials. This week, trunks and freshly cut leafy branches remained piled between the fairways.
The NPS said the removals were intended to implement recommendations from a 2019 cultural landscape report that called for tree thinning to restore the links-style open character envisioned when the course was designed a century ago. The agency argued the work was separate from President Donald Trump’s planned overhaul of the East Potomac.
Reyes was skeptical, concluding that officials rushed to undertake the tree work because Trump “demands hurry on his overhaul,” rather than because of a “newfound zeal” to implement the old report.
Additional coverage
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