Judge chastises DOJ after 430 trees cut down at D.C. golf course

Washington — A federal judge on Monday rebuked the Justice Department after hundreds of trees were cut down at East Potomac Golf Links in Washington, D.C., on Saturday with little notice, telling government lawyers that they have "lost credibility."

U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes held a nearly four-hour virtual hearing Monday and ordered Kevin Griess, superintendent of the National Mall and Memorial Parks, to testify under oath about what led to the felling of 430 trees at the course, which President Trump wants to overhaul. During the hearing, she also demanded Frank Lands, deputy director of operations for the National Park Service, call-in to answer questions.

"I am at a total loss to understand what has happened here other than, Occam's Razor time, that the government intended to do precisely what it has done," which is delay informing the plaintiffs and the court of impending action so they could put a plan in place to raze hundreds of trees, Reyes told Marissa Piropato, a Justice Department lawyer.

The judge began the hearing telling Piropato she is "furious" and "thoroughly unamused right now."

Reyes extended a temporary order blocking the National Park Service from cutting down any additional trees, including for routine maintenance, until 2 p.m. Tuesday as she considers her next steps. She also said she will issue an order requiring the Justice Department to provide her three days' notice of any forthcoming action at the golf course.

The judge had repeatedly asked the Justice Department to provide the court with notice if the Interior Department and National Park Service planned to conduct any construction or similar activity at East Potomac, which would allow her the opportunity to review that action and, if warranted, issue a court order.

Government lawyers told the court in a filing just before 5 p.m. on Friday that the National Park Service would start clearing trees from the course on Saturday as part of a "tree management and cultural landscape rehabilitation project." Griess said in a declaration timestamped Friday at 4:37 p.m. that a group of 169 trees would be removed first, followed by a second tranche of 90 trees. He said an estimated 529 trees in all would be felled as part of the project.

But on Sunday, lawyers for the D.C. Preservation League, which filed a lawsuit with two golfers challenging Mr. Trump's plan to transform East Potomac, said crews had cut down all 529 trees on Saturday alone, including "healthy, mature oaks and maples." 

They requested an emergency order blocking the National Park Service from removing any more trees after Justice Department lawyers told the preservation group that the tree-removal operation was moving "faster than anticipated," according to court papers. The Trump administration told the D.C. Preservation League that "hundreds of additional trees would be felled imminently," though rain Sunday impacted that plan.

Another roughly 99 trees have been flagged for removal, according to the Justice Department. Griess, the superintendent of the National Mall and Memorial Parks, said the 430 trees that were felled were not identified as hazardous or raising safety concerns.

During the hearing, Reyes repeatedly pressed Piropato about when she learned that the National Park Service planned to cut down the trees and why she waited until Friday to inform both the plaintiffs and the court. 

"Ignorance is not an excuse here," she said.

Reyes said she is "beyond disappointed" in the government.

"There are American citizens who are deeply concerned with the actions of the government, and I have repeatedly, on the record, said 'don't be concerned. I trust the government,'" Reyes said, adding, "I do not understand why this went forward on Saturday. Why did this go forward on Saturday?"

The judge also pressed Griess and Lands,who said he was testifying from a vehicle in a parking lot, on who ultimately gave the go-ahead to cut the trees down over the weekend. She called for Gregory Wischer, deputy chief of staff at the Interior Department, to answer questions, but Piropato said she could not get in contact with him.

Griess, whose work includes oversight of East Potomac Golf Links, said he submitted a tree-management plan, which included removals, to the head of the National Park Service on Oct. 5 and received approval for the plan the following day. But both he and Lands said there wasn't any urgency to remove the trees Saturday.

Griess told the court that his tree-removal plan aims to fulfill recommendations laid out in a 2019 Cultural Landscape Report, which calls for restoring "links style and historic vegetation (rough grasslands, thin trees between fairways, and sentinel deciduous trees)" at East Potomac.

Designed by golf course architect Walter J. Travis, East Potomac opened to the public in the 1920s as a links-style course, which are typically built along the coast, Griess said. Those types of golf courses have few trees and lower vegetation, he said.

But in the more than 100 years since East Potomac opened, different types of plantings were allowed on the course, and "there appeared to be no coherent adherence to the original design," Griess said. He told the court that the National Park Service intends to stay true to the stated intent of East Potomac as a links course.

Griess said he moved forward with putting together the tree-removal plan after funding and National Park Service employees working on events related to America's 250th birthday were freed up following the Freedom 250 Grand Prix in August. 

But lawyers for the D.C. Preservation League pushed back on the Trump administration's argument that it cut down the trees to implement the seven-year-old Cultural Landscape Report and noted that Mr. Trump's plan to renovate the East Potomac golf course "will require massive tree-clearing."

They argued that the administration's implementation of the plan violates the National Environmental Policy Act, which requires federal agencies to assess the environmental impacts of proposed action. The plaintiffs accused the Trump administration of skirting its obligations under the law by conducting smaller, segmented projects, like the tree-razing.

"What Defendants are doing now goes beyond routine maintenance, or maintenance of any kind. Defendants have begun an operation that is unprecedented in East Potomac Park's 130-year history: felling more than 500 trees in a single day, with plans to cut down hundreds more as soon as the weather permits," lawyers for the D.C. Preservation League wrote in their request for emergency relief.