President Donald Trump said Monday that his administration would start work immediately on Washington's East Potomac Golf Links, setting a new timetable while a federal court restricts tree removal and permanent changes.
Trump said the Department of the Interior (DOI) could undertake the renovation without approval and that work was scheduled to begin “IMMEDIATELY.” His Oct. 18 post had given Nov. 15 as the start date and estimated that the course would reopen about 15 months later.
U.S. District Judge Ana C. Reyes has barred further tree removal under a temporary order. The order also requires the government to give the court and plaintiffs three business days' written notice before making an irreparable modification to a permanent form or feature of the course.
In an Oct. 13 opinion, Reyes said the National Park Service (NPS) removed about 430 healthy, noninvasive trees in one day. She found the plaintiffs likely to succeed in their claim that the tree management plan failed to comply with the National Environmental Policy Act.
The DC Preservation League and two golfers filed suit in February to challenge the project over environmental law and concerns about the site's historic character. Reyes said the golfers had shown that changes to the public course could harm their recreational and aesthetic interests.
The government maintains that its tree management plan implements a 2019 Cultural Landscape Report and is unrelated to Trump's broader redesign. On the limited record before her, Reyes instead concluded that officials hurried the tree work because Trump wanted the redesign to move quickly.
Reyes found the tree management plan was final enough for judicial review but did not decide whether the broader redevelopment plan was final. After Trump's Oct. 18 announcement, she asked whether the administration still maintained that there was no final agency action on the redevelopment and that Trump had given it only preliminary thought.
Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward argued in a court filing that redesigning the course is not an agency action. The temporary ban on further tree removal remains in force through Oct. 26.
