Hi Brightwood:
Last week I sent an email about the planned removal of over 1200 trees from our community. These trees are located on Rock Creek Golf Course, Brightwood's neighborhood course. The National Park Service (NPS), in coordination with National Links Trust, is planning to improve and rehabilitate the Rock Creek Golf Course to include making space for a driving range. In last week's email I shared opinions, statements, and assessments from the NPS website - here is the link to the information shared: ParkPlanning - Rehabilitation of the Rock Creek Park Golf Course (nps.gov)
Today, I am sharing the opinions and statements about the proposed tree removal from Casey Trees, the guardians of DC's tree canopy, along with an article about this issue from today's Washington Post. Please submit your comments on this very important community issue by Nov 4, 2023.
My best, Commissioner Kim Patterson ANC 4A05, Brightwood Neighborhood 4A05@anc.dc.gov
OCTOBER 30, 2023 / JOHN BOLAND
Update: Rock Creek Golf Course – Save Trees in Rock Creek Park
Last week, we published this story about the National Park Service’s (NPS) plan to rehabilitate the Rock Creek Golf Course. Since then, we’ve seen a tremendous response from the public in support of our city’s trees, and this story has been covered by several local news outlets, including DCist/WAMU 88.5 and ABC7 News.
Thanks to our advocates, partners, and DC Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton, we were able to get the comment deadline extended until November 4th! This gives us critical time to review the plans for the rehabilitation and work with our partners to figure out just how this project will impact Rock Creek Park’s environment and ecosystem. There is still time to submit your comments on NPS’s plan to remove over 1200 trees from Rock Creek Park. Guidance on how to provide comments and a recommended template are provided further down in this article.
What’s Next:
Casey Trees is still planning to submit comments to NPS about this project. There are several things in the plan that we have issues with.
Many in the community have noted that there are trees in the golf course that are invasive or are already dead or dying and should be removed. We would like forests in DC to be as healthy as possible, and we support removing invasive species so native species can grow in their place. Dying native trees still provide very valuable habitat within forests and should be kept where possible and not a safety hazard. Additionally, invasive trees account for only 189 (15%) of the total 1,262 trees being removed, and only 366 (29%) are categorized as dead or dying native trees. That means that 707 healthy, native trees are going to be removed. Roughly 100 of these trees are 100 years old. This is unacceptable.
Rock Creek Golf Course is unique because of its forest patches. Most golf courses worldwide are clear-cut, offering very little in terms of habitat, stormwater protection, and heat mitigation benefits to their surroundings. We appreciate that NPS plans to add up to 12 acres of pollinator meadows and replant up to 200 trees, but even if that happens, 500 mature trees will still be lost. These trees bring benefits to Rock Creek Park and the greater community that meadows cannot replace. Multiple endangered animal species – including the Hay’s Spring Amphipod, which is only found in Rock Creek – rely on these forests for habitat and water quality benefits. There is also no clear plan on how the pollinator meadows will be distributed throughout the golf course. Until NPS shares more detailed plans to protect these species and mitigate the forest loss, we will be asking NPS to re-evaluate these issues and to delay approval.
What You Can Do to Help:
The comment period for this project now closes on Saturday, November 4th, at midnight. You can submit a comment on this page telling the National Park Service to reconsider and re-evaluate the extensive loss of tree cover. If you need pointers on what to say in your comment, feel free to use this template below:
“The forest cover in Rock Creek Golf Course provides significant ecosystem services and habitat benefits to visitors and wildlife. Removing over 1,200 trees, including over 700 healthy native trees, will surely harm the ability of this area to support these vital functions and the species that call it home, to the detriment of all of us that call DC home. I am asking the National Park Service to reconsider the proposed plan and re-evaluate the metrics used to determine how many trees must be removed. The plan should prioritize saving trees that form the cores of forest patches that are designated for removal. Losing this many trees at a time when the District’s canopy is already shrinking would be a terrible loss.”
The Washington Post. 11-2-23
Critics blast plan to remove 1,200 trees from Rock Creek Park golf course
Proposal would seriously damage ecosystem, environmentalists say Joe Heim
A proposed redesign would cut more than 1,000 trees on Rock Creek Park's golf course in D.C. (Bonnie Jo Mount/The Washington Post)
The question is at the heart of a debate over the future of the historic Rock Creek Golf Course, in the northeast corner of the District’s Rock Creek Park.
In late September, the National Park Service, the federal agency with authority over the park and the golf course, posted an environmental assessment for a proposed rehabilitation and redesign of the course by National Links Trust. The trust, a local nonprofit, was awarded a 50-year lease in 2020 to operate Rock Creek, East Potomac and Langston, the three public golf courses in Washington.
There is little disagreement that the challenging, century-old Rock Creek course is in need of repair. Some of its greens are patchy or bumpy, the dense brush bordering its narrow fairways guarantees lost balls (and lost tempers), and only 14 of the 18 holes on the approximately 100-acre course are available. Despite the beautiful setting, it can be a miserable place to play.
But the remedies proposed by the Park Service and the National Links Trust — most notably the removal of 1,200 trees from the course — stunned Washington environmental groups who said the changes will fundamentally alter plant and animal habitats, destroy acres of tree canopy and adversely affect storm-water management.
Representatives of 20 environmental organizations in the Washington region sent a letter last week to Brian Joyner, the Park Service’s acting superintendent for Rock Creek Park, calling the proposed changes “cause for alarm” and noting that stakeholders had not been notified when the proposal first was posted. They called on the Park Service to extend the comment period for 60 days to allow for a thorough evaluation of the impact the changes would have.
“At a time when the District is losing tree canopy while simultaneously feeling the ever-growing impacts of a changing climate, we should be prioritizing retention of our city’s mature forests and natural ecosystems,” stated the letter, which was signed by representatives from groups including Casey Trees, the Sierra Club’s D.C. chapter, Nature Forward, City Wildlife, and the Anacostia Parks and Community Collaborative.
The National Links Trust referred questions about opposition to the proposed changes to the Park Service. In a statement to The Washington Post, the Park Service said, “Roughly 50 percent of the trees slated for removal fall under a category of either dead or poor condition due to significant dead branches and leaders; major vine damage or trunk rot; invasive species; or native trees that create conditions which preclude the adequate turf growth for the historic golf course and significantly encroach on historic areas of the park landscape.”
The Park Service extended the comment period for the environmental assessment by 11 days. It ends Saturday at midnight.
The proposed changes to the course, which is the least played of the District’s public courses, would include altering the layout to create a traditional nine-hole course and a par-3 nine-hole course. It would add a driving range to the facility, and upgrade irrigation and drainage systems to improve the condition of fairways and greens. It would also add an ecological trail for nongolfers to access.
The current clubhouse would be demolished and replaced with a “10,400 square-foot, fully accessible, two-level clubhouse, offering a robust indoor/outdoor food and beverage operation, restrooms, a community room, indoor golf training areas, a pro shop, and support areas,” according to the Park Service assessment.
The purpose of the project, the Park Service said, is to “address deferred maintenance, increase playability, broaden course appeal to the local community, and achieve financial stability for the operation of the Rock Creek Park Golf Course.”
But it is the significant changes to the physical landscape that sparked deep concern among the District’s leading environmental organizations and watchdogs.
Kelly Collins Choi is director of policy and land conservation for Casey Trees, a nonprofit created to protect and enhance the tree canopy in the District. She said environmental groups were surprised at the scope of the planned rehabilitation project and the lack of clarity about exactly which trees would be removed and how those decisions were made.
“There’s no information on the size or specimens of these trees that are slated for clear-cutting in some of the most healthy forest stands,” Collins Choi said this week as she walked along the course for a closer look at some of the targeted areas. “We’re not trying to stop the rehab, but we’re trying to ensure that, where possible, that healthy forest is retained.”
