The RecordExhibit 144
Felling 430 trees at a century-old public golf course over a holiday weekend, in the middle of a lawsuit
Pending means: In court or under criminal investigation right now.
On Saturday, Oct. 10, 2026, the National Park Service cut down hundreds of mature trees at East Potomac Golf Links, a public course in Washington that opened in the 1920s and that the administration plans to rebuild as a championship venue, a day after telling the judge hearing a lawsuit against the overhaul that the work was about to begin. On Oct. 12 the judge halted further cutting and said the government had lost its credibility with her.
What happened
The D.C. Preservation League and two local golfers are suing the Interior Department over the overhaul. Their complaint, filed in February 2026, says the project violates the 1897 law that created East Potomac Park for 'recreation and the pleasure of the people', skips the environmental review the National Environmental Policy Act requires by splitting the work into smaller pieces, and damages a park on the National Register of Historic Places; it also says the Park Service began dumping debris from the demolished White House East Wing onto the course in October 2025.
In December 2025 Interior ended the lease of the National Links Trust, the nonprofit that had run the course and two others and says it spent $8.5 million improving them. On Friday, Oct. 9, shortly before 5 p.m., government lawyers told the court that tree removal would start the next day; the course superintendent's declaration, filed at 4:37 p.m., said 169 trees would come down first, then 90 more, for an estimated 529 in all.
On Saturday crews felled 430 trees by the government's count; the plaintiffs say all 529 came down, including healthy mature oaks and maples. Rain stopped the work on Sunday, and about 99 more trees were flagged for removal. The superintendent, Kevin Griess, said none of the 430 had been identified as hazardous.
On Sunday the plaintiffs asked for an emergency order after Justice Department lawyers told them the operation was moving faster than anticipated and hundreds more trees could be cut soon. At a hearing of nearly four hours on Monday, Oct. 12, Judge Ana Reyes ordered Griess to testify under oath and questioned a Park Service deputy director, Frank Lands; both said there had been no urgency to cut the trees on Saturday.
Griess said he sent the tree plan to the head of the Park Service on Oct. 5, that it was approved the next day, that it carries out a 2019 cultural landscape report calling for a links-style course with few trees, and that the work went ahead once money and staff were freed up after the Freedom 250 Grand Prix in August. Reyes told the government's lawyer that it had 'lost credibility', said she was furious and that ignorance was not an excuse, and said the government had meant to act without warning the plaintiffs or the court.
Where it stands
Pending: the lawsuit is before Judge Reyes, a federal judge in Washington. On Oct. 12 she extended a temporary order barring the Park Service from cutting any more trees at the course, including for routine maintenance, until 2 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 13, while she decides what to do next, and said she would require three days' notice of any future action at the course.
That is a short order to preserve the status quo, not a ruling on whether the overhaul is lawful; earlier in the case she had declined the plaintiffs' repeated requests to halt the work. No court has ruled on the merits.
The administration's side
Interior's press office says it does not comment on pending litigation. When it ended the nonprofit's lease, the department said the group had not made the capital improvements its lease required and that it would keep the courses safe, open, affordable and accessible. Government lawyers described the work as a tree management and cultural landscape rehabilitation project, and the superintendent testified that it carries out the 2019 report's recommendations for the course's original links-style design, which decades of changes had obscured. Justice Department lawyers told the judge they had not known the details of the tree-cutting plan.
Sources
Permanent link: https://unredactedrecord.com/e/eastpotomac/