A judge has barred the Trump administration from cutting down or damaging any additional trees on the public golf course in D.C. that President Trump wants to begin overhauling.
Judge Ana Reyes issued a preliminary injunction on Monday evening to stop further tree clearing on the East Potomac Golf Links, unless there is an imminent threat to public safety, while litigation is ongoing over Trump’s plan to turn the grounds into a championship-level course. She said that while the events
A judge has barred the Trump administration from cutting down or damaging any additional trees on the public golf course in D.C. that President Trump wants to begin overhauling.
Judge Ana Reyes issued a preliminary injunction on Monday evening to stop further tree clearing on the East Potomac Golf Links, unless there is an imminent threat to public safety, while litigation is ongoing over Trump’s plan to turn the grounds into a championship-level course. She said that while the events surrounding the case have become extraordinary, her ruling, to stop an agency “from proceeding as the President wants,” wasn’t.
Reyes also ordered the administration to provide written notice at least 10 business days before it closes the golf course, in whole or in part, and before it makes any “irreversible modification to any forms or features of East Potomac Park.”
The DC Preservation League and two local golfers challenged the project in February, but the case began heating up earlier this month after the administration razed hundreds of trees over a holiday weekend, giving the court less than 24 hours notice.
Reyes, a Biden appointee, was furious, saying that the administration had been telling her for months there was no final plan to begin work.
She issued a temporary order at that time to stop the tree felling though Oct. 26. Before she heard arguments last week on whether to extend that ruling, Trump announced the course will be closing Nov. 15 for a roughly 15-month renovation.
Reyes ordered the Justice Department to say if it was the administration’s position that the plans were still preliminary. Tensions then flared after Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward filed a brief saying nothing had changed.
In her ruling Monday, Reyes said she found the plan was final, confirmed by not just by the president and Interior secretary’s posts, “but also by the Government’s actions, not the least of which is the removal of hundreds of healthy, non-invasive trees on no real notice.”
Democracy Forward, which is representing the DC Preservation League and the golfers, called the ruling a big win to protect the park from “further irreparable harm.”
In their lawsuit, the challengers argue the administration exceeded its authority in adopting and implementing plans to overhaul the property, and skirting required environmental and historic preservation reviews.
East Potomac Golf Links sits on Hains Point, an island in the Potomac River. The facility first opened as a municipal course in 1920 on property Congress declared a public park in 1897. For decades, the park has been maintained by the Interior Department and National Park Service.
With affordable rates for its two nine-hole courses, one 18-hole course, miniature golf course and driving range, the facility is known for being accessible to both beginners and seasoned players. Opponents worry that will change under its new design. The rendering Trump posted on social media shows the grounds revamped into one 18-hole course and a driving range.
Trump says he is renovating the links because they are “old, broken, dilapidated, and of no further use.” When it is done, he said the course will be open to the public and able to host world-class tournaments. He said he has already notified the U.S. Golf Association, PGA of America and the PGA Tour that they will soon have this course as an option.
In courtroom testimony, Interior Department Deputy chief of staff Gregory Wischer said Trump’s renovation of the golf course is part of the president’s broader work to beautify the nation’s capital, but the agency started cutting trees on Oct. 10 to begin implementing a 2019 landscaping plan for the property.
Reyes said the landscaping plan was only implemented to advance Trump’s redesign of the course. To say the tree cutting was “cleaning up,” she said, “is borderline farcical.”
Write to Lydia Wheeler at lydia.wheeler@wsj.com
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