Federal judge halts further tree removal at D.C.'s East Potomac golf course

A federal judge extended an emergency order on Tuesday barring the National Park Service from cutting down any more trees at East Potomac Golf Links in Washington, after government lawyers acknowledged that crews had felled hundreds of trees at the public course over the Columbus Day weekend despite the judge's earlier warnings.

U.S. District Judge Ana C. Reyes, presiding over a lawsuit that seeks to stop a Trump administration plan to rebuild the historic course into a "championship-level" facility, said she was "beyond disappointed" after a three-hour hearing in which a Justice Department attorney confirmed that 430 trees had been removed since Saturday. Her order, issued Tuesday, bars further cutting through Oct. 26 and requires the government to give three business days' written notice before making any irreversible change to the course.

A holiday-weekend chainsaw operation

The dispute is part of a lawsuit filed in February by the D.C. Preservation League and two local golfers against the Interior Department and the National Park Service, which manages the 210-acre course on a man-made island just south of the National Mall. Reyes had told the government in May that it could not remove more than 10 trees without first notifying the court. According to reporting from WTOP, National Mall and Memorial Parks Superintendent Kevin Griess submitted a tree-management plan on Oct. 5 that acting NPS Director Jessica Bowron approved the next day, and the Justice Department learned of the cutting plan on Oct. 8. The government gave the court and the plaintiffs roughly 12 hours' notice late on Friday, Oct. 9, that crews intended to begin removing up to 529 trees in phases starting the next morning.

Crews cut down 430 of those trees on Saturday, Oct. 10, according to testimony cited by both WTOP and ABC News. The Preservation League asked for an emergency restraining order the following day. Reyes held an initial hearing Monday that ran roughly three hours, issued a short-term halt, and then extended it Tuesday to run through Oct. 26 while she weighs whether to impose a broader preliminary injunction covering the rest of the renovation.

A judge who says she was misled

Reyes did not hide her anger at the hearing. "More than just being upset and furious right now, I am just beyond disappointed in the government," she said, according to ABC News, adding, "I am just at a total loss to understand what has happened here." She told government lawyers, "You did not do your best! You did your absolute worst!" and said she regretted not having formalized her earlier warning about the 10-tree threshold into a written order, since that gap was the only reason she had not already begun contempt proceedings.

"I had said at the May hearing that I didn't want 10 trees chopped down without someone having notice. On what universe did anyone in your office think that that was acceptable?" — U.S. District Judge Ana C. Reyes

Justice Department attorney Marissa Ann Piropato told the court, "Your Honor, we did our best in providing notice," and said the removals were tied to a 2019 plan to clear dead, dying and hazardous trees. Two Park Service officials testified at the hearing: Frank Lands, the agency's deputy director of operations, said the tree removal was his own idea, that there was "no specific urgency" behind the timing, and that no one had instructed him to act, adding he had last spoken with a White House official two or three months earlier. Griess testified that the work followed a 2019 Cultural Landscape Report and that he was unaware, in his official capacity, of the president's broader redesign plans. NPR's coverage of the hearing similarly described a judge demanding to know who ordered the weekend cutting and why the court was given so little notice.

Reyes set a further hearing for Monday, Oct. 19, when she indicated she expects to hear testimony from two more senior Interior officials: Gregory Wischer, a political appointee serving as the department's point person on the president's Washington beautification projects, and Bowron, the acting Park Service director. She told the parties the central questions now are who ordered the removals and whether they were carried out to get ahead of, or around, her earlier orders. She also warned that further unauthorized work would carry "serious consequences."

A public course with a long, contested history

East Potomac was set aside for public recreation by an act of Congress in 1897 and has operated as a municipal golf course since the 1920s; the park was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1973. It is today managed as part of National Mall and Memorial Parks and is among the most heavily used public golf facilities in the city.

President Trump has said he wants the course rebuilt into a tournament-caliber venue — telling reporters it would become "one of the Greatest Golf Courses anywhere in the World," per ABC News, while insisting it would remain open to the public. The Interior Department ended a lease with the National Links Trust, the nonprofit that had managed the course, and the dispute escalated last fall when, according to the Preservation League's complaint, the department trucked in roughly 30,000 cubic yards of dirt and construction debris — including wiring, piping and bricks — from the demolition of the White House East Wing and deposited it on the course without, the plaintiffs allege, testing it for contaminants. The National Park Service has separately posted plans for a construction contract worth up to $49 million, with bidding expected to open in early 2027, and awarded a roughly $390,000 environmental and historic-preservation compliance contract to an outside firm in September.

D.C. Preservation League Executive Director Rebecca Miller said when the suit was filed that altering the course's historic character "would undermine a site meant to be accessible to the public," arguing that preservation means protecting its affordability and openness, not allowing an exclusive redevelopment. The League's co-plaintiffs, golfers Alex Dickson and Dave Roberts, have said in court filings that the course should remain a resource for players of all skill levels and incomes.

Who plays the course

The fight has drawn in the course's everyday users well beyond the litigants. Golfer Michael Gallagher told a local outlet the course "doesn't really need to be changed" and worried a championship-style redesign would push greens fees out of reach. Ashley Hawkins, who runs through the park, said her larger worry is that the grounds might stop functioning as a public space. Casey Trees, a nonprofit focused on the city's tree canopy, has separately noted that mature trees in the park support shade, stormwater absorption and wildlife habitat that would take decades to replace.

What happens next

For now, the restraining order freezes further cutting through Oct. 26, and the government must give three business days' notice of any additional irreversible step. Reyes has asked for written submissions from both sides on whether a broader preliminary injunction should stay in place for the duration of the case, and she has signaled she wants sworn testimony from Wischer and Bowron at the Oct. 19 hearing on exactly who authorized the weekend removals. The underlying merits case — over whether the redevelopment requires the environmental and historic-preservation review that the plaintiffs say has been skipped — remains pending before Reyes, alongside the government's motion to dismiss. Neither the Interior Department nor the White House has issued a public statement responding to Tuesday's order.