East Potomac Park: Crews remove debris and gear after cutting hundreds of trees

October 16, 2026 Clara Wilson

The National Park Service will start clearing debris and removing heavy equipment from East Potomac Park on Friday, after a federal judge issued a temporary halt on tree removals earlier this week.

The Department of Justice said the work would begin at 8 a.m. Friday, according to a court filing. That work would not include cutting down any more trees, they said.

It marks a step back from the park by the Trump administration after hundreds of trees were cut down over the weekend. Some of the trees were huge and decades-old.

The move led to a massive public outcry and harsh criticism from Judge Ana Reyes, who raised her voice at government attorneys in a virtual hearing on Monday and said the tree removal “has caused the government to lose all credibility in this case.”

Earlier this year, President Donald Trump announced plans to renovate the golf course at East Potomac Park into a championship-level course.

East Potomac Park currently houses an accessible public golf course, and locals use the park to bicycle, run and walk. Residents are concerned the renovations will price people out of a community gathering space.

That concern prompted the D.C. Preservation League to file a lawsuit against the Trump administration, which led to the case overseen by Reyes. The judge had ordered the administration to give reasonable notice before removing more than 10 trees or closing the golf course.

Reyes said the government filed notice at 4:55 p.m. last Friday saying up to 529 trees would be removed from the park, saying the trees needed to be removed in line with a rehabilitation plan from 2019. The lack of notice is why she called Monday’s emergency hearing, and why she said she was so angry.

The Department of Interior has insisted that the tree removals were not part of plans to renovate East Potomac Park’s golf course.

Still, Reyes has issued an emergency order to stop all tree-cutting while the court reviews the project. She warned that any violation of work stoppage, even by two seconds, will result in contempt proceedings against the Trump administration.