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Trees? Or golf?
Golf? Or trees?
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Which takes priority?
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.
Local nonprofit chosen to revitalize D.C.’s three historic public golf courses
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.
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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.
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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.
These D.C. trees were thriving. Then they were poisoned.
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.
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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.
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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.”
The Park Service proposal calls for planting new trees and establishing a pollinator meadow. But, Collins Choi said, “these are mature growth stands [being removed]. Even if you’re going to replant trees and meadows, those are not equivalent habitat.”
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According to Casey Trees, the changes could have negative effects on endangered species that live in Rock Creek Park’s forests, including long-eared and Indiana bats whose populations have been damaged by the fungal white-nose syndrome.
D.C. Council member Janeese Lewis George (D-Ward 4), whose district encompasses the golf course, said the planned rehabilitation is an important project with many potential benefits including upgrading facilities, improving trails and paths, adding meadow habitats and expanding accessibility into the park. But “the current proposal of removing more than 1,200 trees from the area goes too far and risks adversely impacting our local ecosystem,” she said.
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“I hope the National Park Service and National Links Trust will modify their proposal to reduce the total loss of trees and strengthen mitigation measures,” Lewis George said in a statement. “We can reinvigorate Rock Creek Golf Course as an important public resource while also doing more to preserve our urban tree canopy.”
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The Park Service said that when the comment period closes, it will review all public comments and create a document addressing substantive concerns. “The public’s involvement is vital to the planning process and substantive comments can generate ideas or alternatives not previously considered,” Park Service spokeswoman Autumn Cook said in an email.
After the public comments are reviewed, Cook said the project either would be approved to move forward or the Park Service would begin additional environmental impact studies with continued public engagement and more opportunities for feedback.
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