During the hottest April on record, the National Park Service approved a plan to cut down over 1,200 trees—including hundreds of heritage and canopy trees—to renovate a golf course in Rock Creek National Park. This out-of-touch plan was developed in a vacuum with no input from the many organizations that care for our streams, trees, and wildlife, and was approved despite stark opposition by 90% of the 3,212 people who commented on it. If allowed to go forward, the plan will affect our air quality, add strain on our entire watershed, exacerbate the urban heat island effect, and further endanger the species that rely on Rock Creek Park.

In these times of unprecedented threat to our environment and natural resources brought on by the climate crisis, we must ensure the decisions of the National Park Service and our government representatives do not make matters worse.

Please appeal to Secretary of Interior Deb Haaland to ask that this ecological disaster be stopped, and the public be engaged on a proposal that protects Rock Creek Park and its ecosystem now and for future generations.