National Park Service cuts down 500 trees at East Potomac Golf Course

Well, it was no holiday weekend for workers at D.C.'s East Potomac Golf Course. Tree-cutting crews were busy taking down hundreds of trees, despite a lawsuit trying to stop redevelopment of the course. Let's get out to our Melanie Olwuk. She joins us live in Southwest this morning with the latest details. Mel? Hey, good morning. A little bit of a slow start today because of the wet weather, but one of the things that lawyers for people trying to preserve East Potomac Park are concerned about is what's going to happen now that the rain has cleared. They say that the administration and the National Park Service cut more than 500 trees down on Saturday alone. And so they have filed for an emergency restraining order, saying the administration plans to take even more trees out as soon as possible. Late Friday afternoon, the government filed notice of tree cutting work. And by Saturday morning, it was well underway. Fox 5 cameras found stumps and bare trunks left behind after hundreds of trees cut down on Saturday. Many other trees marked with yellow tape on the chopping block. Two golf course regulars in the D.C. Preservation League are suing to stop President Trump's proposed redesign of the golf course. They believe that turning it into a world-class course would violate the 1897 law, which established the park for the recreation and pleasure of the people of D.C. A federal judge did allow routine maintenance to continue while the larger issue was argued, But she said she didn't want to be blindsided by bulldozers in the middle of the night. Preservationists say that's pretty much what happened. That's absurd. While there's ongoing litigation over the future of this place, the fact that this administration thinks that they can just go in and start doing the work is just unbelievable to us. So I think it's clearly they're not operating in good faith, which is what we've been saying was going to be the case for months here. Now, the initial notice on Friday said the tree removal would be done in phases. The goal, according to the Park Service, is to restore the course's historic links character, which generally has more wide-open spaces and views. The Park Service also says they want to reopen views of nearby landmarks. The group suing claimed that all 529 trees had been taken down on Saturday, including healthy, mature oaks and maples. So the court filing now is an emergency ask for a 14-day restraining order against any more work And they want to require the government to give a three-day notice before doing any of this sort of major work. We do know that the judge just this morning said there's going to be a hearing at 10 a.m. And she wants government representatives to be prepared to testify under oath. I'll send it back to you.