A federal judge has temporarily blocked the Trump administration from removing any more trees at the East Potomac Golf Links in Washington, D.C., until Oct. 26.
Judge Ana C. Reyes, a Biden-appointed district judge for the District of Columbia, issued the temporary restraining order on Tuesday, after the Trump administration removed hundreds of trees over the weekend from the course President Donald Trump is seeking to renovate. An emergency filing from the DC Preservation League on Sunday over the tree removals sparked a Monday morning hearing, in which Reyes railed at the Department of Justice lawyers, saying the removals “cost the government all of its credibility” in the lawsuit.
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Reyes had issued a one-day temporary restraining order early Monday morning ahead of the hearing, so her order on Tuesday extends that ban for two weeks.
Her Tuesday order adds that through the end of the day on Oct. 26, the Trump administration “must provide the Court and Plaintiffs three business days’ written advance notice before making any irreparable modification to any permanent form or feature of the East Potomac Golf Course.”
The DC Preservation League, which is suing the Trump administration over its planned changes to the course, wrote in its Sunday filing that the National Park Service removed 529 trees from the property over the weekend, although the DOJ attorneys testified that the park service only removed 430 trees over the weekend, per the Washington Sun.
In a statement responding to a Washington Examiner inquiry on Monday about how many trees were removed from the property over the weekend, an Interior Department spokesperson said the work is part of the agency’s “required stewardship of the park.” The department added that no cherry blossom trees will be affected by the work.
Reyes had told the DOJ in May during a separate status conference that it would need to tell the court in advance if the park service wanted to remove more than 10 trees from the property.
“The National Park Service is finally implementing a 7-year-old plan to address tree overgrowth at East Potomac Golf Course. The work will include selective tree and vegetation work to restore the course,” the department spokesperson said.
Kevin Griess, superintendent of the park service’s National Mall and Memorial Parks sector, wrote in a Friday court filing ahead of the Saturday removals that the agency would eliminate no more than 529 trees from the property as part of a park maintenance and cultural landscaping project. He wrote that the trees “do not contribute to the historic landscape.”
JUDGE MANDATES PAUSE ON TREE REMOVAL AT EAST POTOMAC GOLF LINKS AFTER OVER 500 CUT DOWN
“No healthy trees that are contributing features of the historical golf course (such as healthy, historic cherry trees) will be removed as part of this project,” Griess wrote.
DOJ attorneys also argued in their notice to the court on Friday that the National Park Service’s “restoration activities are a separate agency decision” and are distinct from the course renovation issue at hand in the case.
