Judge goes scorched earth after Trump administration removes at least 430 trees from East Potomac in one weekend
Alex Wong
It was a busy, noisy and destructive weekend at East Potomac Golf Links, where, according to reports, work crews felled hundreds of trees on Saturday. The 105-year-old municipal course became a political lightning rod this spring when the Trump Administration wrestled control of the course away from the National Links Trust, a non-profit group that had managed East Potomac since 2020. Shortly after, the White House announced plans to convert the busiest public course in the city into an 18-hole professional complex, pushing through an estimated $20 millionn to $49 million renovation without congressional approval.
That set off watch dog alarms across the country, which rang again this weekend when reports surfaced that crews from the National Parks Service and Vanasse Hangen Brustlin, the firm contracted by the government to carry out the renovation, had removed as many as 529 trees from the course … in a single day. In light of the news, the D.C. Preservation Society—who sued the Trump Administration this summer in an effort to halt the rapidly advancing renovations—requested a 14-day restraining order on Monday morning. In the ensuing hearing, Judge Ana Reyes sided with the plaintiffs, going scorched earth on the government and its contractors in an exchange that reads like something out of a legal drama.
In July, Reyes ruled that work at East Potomac could continue as long as the federal government informed the court in advance about any major work at the course, including the removal of more than 10 trees at a time. At 4:55 p.m. on Friday, the government reportedly filed a notice to the court that they planned to remove 169 trees on Saturday in a heavily wooded section of the course, with another 90 to be removed at a later date. Now it seems the original notice was a Trojan Horse used by the Trump administration to complete far more significant alterations without oversight. During Monday's hearing, a lawyer for the Trump administration acknowledged that at least 430 trees had been felled over the weekend, enraging Reyes.
"I was hearing from everybody on plaintiffs side that this was going to happen. I said repeatedly no, I trust the government. I trusted you all NOT to do precisely what you have done,” Reyes said. “I am at a total loss to understand what has happened here, other than the government precisely intended to do precisely what it has done, which is intentionally delay letting the plaintiffs and the court know what is happening so they can put a plan in place to clear hundreds and hundreds of trees.”
Reyes ordered a work stop at East Potomac, including “routine maintenance,” until 7 a.m. Tuesday morning or until she issues another order. Reyes reportedly threatened contempt of court proceedings if the order was violated by “even two seconds” and summoned National Park Service Superintendent of the National Mall and Memorial Parks Kevin Griess to testify in the case.