2026年10月12日 / 美国东部时间下午3:08 / 哥伦比亚广播公司新闻
华盛顿讯——周一，一名联邦法官斥责美国司法部，此前周六华盛顿特区东波托马克高尔夫球场未经提前告知便砍伐了数百棵树木，法官对政府律师表示他们已经“丧失公信力”。
美国地区法官安娜·雷耶斯周一主持了一场近四小时的虚拟听证会，并下令国家广场和纪念公园主管凯文·格里什宣誓作证，阐明该球场430棵树木被砍伐的缘由。特朗普总统曾计划对该球场进行全面改造。听证会上，她还要求国家公园管理局运营副主任弗兰克·兰兹上线接受质询。
雷耶斯对司法部律师玛丽莎·皮罗帕托说道：“我完全无法理解这里到底发生了什么，用奥卡姆剃刀原理来说，就是政府故意这么做的——故意拖延告知原告和法院即将采取的行动，以便他们能制定计划砍伐数百棵树。”
法官在听证会开场时就告知皮罗帕托，她“非常愤怒”且“此刻丝毫没有被逗乐”。
雷耶斯延长了一项临时禁令，禁止国家公园管理局砍伐任何额外树木，包括常规维护所需的树木，直至周二下午2点，以便她考虑后续措施。她还表示，将发布一项命令，要求司法部在该球场任何即将开展的行动前提前三天通知她。
此前，法官曾多次要求司法部，若内政部和国家公园管理局计划在东波托马克球场开展任何建设或类似活动，需向法院通报，以便她有机会审查该行动，并在必要时发布法院命令。
政府律师在周五下午5点前提交的一份文件中告知法院，国家公园管理局将于周六开始清理该球场的树木，作为“树木管理和文化景观修复项目”的一部分。格里什在周五下午4点37分标注时间的一份声明中表示，将首先移除169棵树，随后再移除第二批90棵树。他表示，该项目预计总共将砍伐约529棵树。
但周日，华盛顿特区保护联盟的律师表示，施工方仅在周六一天就砍伐了全部529棵树，其中包括“健康成熟的橡树和枫树”。该联盟与两名高尔夫球手一同提起诉讼，反对特朗普改造东波托马克球场的计划。
根据法庭文件，司法部律师曾告知该保护联盟，树木砍伐行动“比预期更快”，随后该联盟请求发布紧急命令，阻止国家公园管理局继续砍伐树木。特朗普政府曾告诉华盛顿特区保护联盟，“很快将有数百棵额外的树木被砍伐”，不过周日的降雨打乱了这一计划。
据司法部透露，另有约99棵树已被标记为待砍伐。国家广场和纪念公园主管格里什表示，被砍伐的430棵树并未被认定为危险树木或存在安全隐患。
听证会上，雷耶斯多次质问皮罗帕托，她何时得知国家公园管理局计划砍伐树木，以及为何直到周五才通知原告和法院。
“在这里，不知情不是借口，”她说道。
雷耶斯表示，她对政府“极为失望”。
“有美国公民对政府的行为深感担忧，而我曾多次在公开记录中表示‘不必担心，我信任政府’，”雷耶斯补充道，“我不明白为什么这场砍伐会在周六进行。为什么这场砍伐会在周六发生？”
法官还就最终是谁批准在周末砍伐树木的问题，盘问了格里什和兰兹——兰兹表示他是在停车场的一辆车内作证的。她要求内政部副幕僚长格雷戈里·维舍尔到场回答问题，但皮罗帕托表示无法联系到他。
负责监督东波托马克高尔夫球场的格里什表示，他已于10月5日将包括树木砍伐在内的树木管理计划提交给国家公园管理局负责人，并于次日获得批准。但他和兰兹均表示，周六并无砍伐树木的紧迫性。
格里什告诉法庭，他的树木移除计划旨在落实2019年《文化景观报告》中提出的建议，该报告呼吁在东波托马克球场恢复“林克斯风格和标志性植被（粗糙草地、球道间稀疏树木和标志性落叶乔木）”。
格里什表示，东波托马克球场由高尔夫球场建筑师沃尔特·J·特拉维斯设计，于20世纪20年代向公众开放，是一座林克斯风格球场，这类球场通常建于沿海地区，树木较少，植被低矮。
但在东波托马克球场开放后的100多年里，球场内种植了不同类型的植物，“似乎没有连贯遵循原始设计”，格里什说道。他告诉法庭，国家公园管理局希望忠实还原东波托马克球场作为林克斯球场的既定初衷。
格里什表示，在8月份的“自由250大奖赛”结束后，用于美国250周年纪念活动相关项目的资金和国家公园管理局工作人员得以释放，他随后着手制定了树木移除计划。
但华盛顿特区保护联盟的律师驳斥了特朗普政府的说法，即他们砍伐树木是为了落实这份已有7年历史的《文化景观报告》，并指出特朗普改造东波托马克高尔夫球场的计划“将需要大规模清理树木”。
他们辩称，政府实施该计划的行为违反了《国家环境政策法》，该法案要求联邦机构评估拟议行动对环境的影响。原告指控特朗普政府通过开展小型分段项目（如此次树木砍伐）来规避该法律规定的义务。
“被告如今的所作所为已超出常规维护，甚至超出任何形式的维护范畴。被告已经启动了东波托马克公园130年历史上前所未有的行动：在一天内砍伐500多棵树，并计划在天气允许时尽快砍伐数百棵更多的树木，”华盛顿特区保护联盟的律师在请求紧急救济的文件中写道。
Judge chastises Justice Department lawyers after hundreds of trees cut down at D.C. golf course
October 12, 2026 / 3:08 PM EDT / CBS News
Washington — A federal judge on Monday rebuked the Justice Department after hundreds of trees were cut down at East Potomac Golf Links in Washington, D.C., on Saturday with little notice, telling government lawyers that they have “lost credibility.”
U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes held a nearly four-hour virtual hearing Monday and ordered Kevin Griess, superintendent of the National Mall and Memorial Parks, to testify under oath about what led to the felling of 430 trees at the course, which President Trump wants to overhaul. During the hearing, she also demanded Frank Lands, deputy director of operations for the National Park Service, call-in to answer questions.
“I am at a total loss to understand what has happened here other than, Occam’s Razor time, that the government intended to do precisely what it has done,” which is delay informing the plaintiffs and the court of impending action so they could put a plan in place to raze hundreds of trees, Reyes told Marissa Piropato, a Justice Department lawyer.
The judge began the hearing telling Piropato she is “furious” and “thoroughly unamused right now.”
Reyes extended a temporary order blocking the National Park Service from cutting down any additional trees, including for routine maintenance, until 2 p.m. Tuesday as she considers her next steps. She also said she will issue an order requiring the Justice Department to provide her three days’ notice of any forthcoming action at the golf course.
The judge had repeatedly asked the Justice Department to provide the court with notice if the Interior Department and National Park Service planned to conduct any construction or similar activity at East Potomac, which would allow her the opportunity to review that action and, if warranted, issue a court order.
Government lawyers told the court in a filing just before 5 p.m. on Friday that the National Park Service would start clearing trees from the course on Saturday as part of a “tree management and cultural landscape rehabilitation project.” Griess said in a declaration timestamped Friday at 4:37 p.m. that a group of 169 trees would be removed first, followed by a second tranche of 90 trees. He said an estimated 529 trees in all would be felled as part of the project.
But on Sunday, lawyers for the D.C. Preservation League, which filed a lawsuit with two golfers challenging Mr. Trump’s plan to transform East Potomac, said crews had cut down all 529 trees on Saturday alone, including “healthy, mature oaks and maples.”
They requested an emergency order blocking the National Park Service from removing any more trees after Justice Department lawyers told the preservation group that the tree-removal operation was moving “faster than anticipated,” according to court papers. The Trump administration told the D.C. Preservation League that “hundreds of additional trees would be felled imminently,” though rain Sunday impacted that plan.
Another roughly 99 trees have been flagged for removal, according to the Justice Department. Griess, the superintendent of the National Mall and Memorial Parks, said the 430 trees that were felled were not identified as hazardous or raising safety concerns.
During the hearing, Reyes repeatedly pressed Piropato about when she learned that the National Park Service planned to cut down the trees and why she waited until Friday to inform both the plaintiffs and the court.
“Ignorance is not an excuse here,” she said.
Reyes said she is “beyond disappointed” in the government.
“There are American citizens who are deeply concerned with the actions of the government, and I have repeatedly, on the record, said ‘don’t be concerned. I trust the government,’” Reyes said, adding, “I do not understand why this went forward on Saturday. Why did this go forward on Saturday?”
The judge also pressed Griess and Lands,who said he was testifying from a vehicle in a parking lot, on who ultimately gave the go-ahead to cut the trees down over the weekend. She called for Gregory Wischer, deputy chief of staff at the Interior Department, to answer questions, but Piropato said she could not get in contact with him.
Griess, whose work includes oversight of East Potomac Golf Links, said he submitted a tree-management plan, which included removals, to the head of the National Park Service on Oct. 5 and received approval for the plan the following day. But both he and Lands said there wasn’t any urgency to remove the trees Saturday.
Griess told the court that his tree-removal plan aims to fulfill recommendations laid out in a 2019 Cultural Landscape Report, which calls for restoring “links style and historic vegetation (rough grasslands, thin trees between fairways, and sentinel deciduous trees)” at East Potomac.
Designed by golf course architect Walter J. Travis, East Potomac opened to the public in the 1920s as a links-style course, which are typically built along the coast, Griess said. Those types of golf courses have few trees and lower vegetation, he said.
But in the more than 100 years since East Potomac opened, different types of plantings were allowed on the course, and “there appeared to be no coherent adherence to the original design,” Griess said. He told the court that the National Park Service intends to stay true to the stated intent of East Potomac as a links course.
Griess said he moved forward with putting together the tree-removal plan after funding and National Park Service employees working on events related to America’s 250th birthday were freed up following the Freedom 250 Grand Prix in August.
But lawyers for the D.C. Preservation League pushed back on the Trump administration’s argument that it cut down the trees to implement the seven-year-old Cultural Landscape Report and noted that Mr. Trump’s plan to renovate the East Potomac golf course “will require massive tree-clearing.”
They argued that the administration’s implementation of the plan violates the National Environmental Policy Act, which requires federal agencies to assess the environmental impacts of proposed action. The plaintiffs accused the Trump administration of skirting its obligations under the law by conducting smaller, segmented projects, like the tree-razing.
“What Defendants are doing now goes beyond routine maintenance, or maintenance of any kind. Defendants have begun an operation that is unprecedented in East Potomac Park’s 130-year history: felling more than 500 trees in a single day, with plans to cut down hundreds more as soon as the weather permits,” lawyers for the D.C. Preservation League wrote in their request for emergency relief.
发表回复