XRDC Launches Campaign to Save Rock Creek Park Ecosystem; Demands National Park Service Take Action
Rebels demand that the National Park Service reject the Rock Creek Golf Course rehabilitation plan and co-create a new plan with the community
Washington, DC – This week, Extinction Rebellion DC (XRDC) kicked off a new campaign to save the Rock Creek Park ecosystem from the National Park Service’s habitat-destroying “rehabilitation” plan for the Rock Creek Golf Course. Rebels issued demands to the National Park Service to reject the rehabilitation plan and conduct a Citizen’s Assembly whose outcomes will help create a new, community-driven plan.
Read the full letter here.
Extinction Rebellion DC’s demands for the National Park Service:
Publicly reject the current Rock Creek Park Golf Course rehabilitation plan as it severely damages wildlife habitat, cuts more than 1,200 trees, worsens the city’s air quality, exacerbates the urban heat island effect, and contributes to the climate crisis, undermining the wellbeing of DC residents, especially marginalized communities.
Conduct a Citizen’s Assembly that prioritizes marginalized communities and the communities neighboring the Rock Creek Golf Course and helps create a new plan that protects the Rock Creek ecosystem as a whole and contributes to climate mitigation for the city.
In 2023, the National Park Service (NPS) presented the plan to rehabilitate and address the deferred maintenance at the Rock Creek Golf Course. The plan itself includes cutting more than 1,200 trees (the equivalent of 8 acres of forest), installing a 50-bay driving range with bright lights that will stay illuminated past sunset, and expanding the clubhouse equipped with a full restaurant. Despite over 90% of the public comments opposing the plan, NPS approved the plan in spring of this year, with final approval still pending from the National Capital Planning Commission.
“The National Park Service’s so-called ‘rehabilitation’ plan for the Rock Creek Golf Course is a $35 million abomination. It severely damages wildlife habitat, cuts down more than 1,200 trees, fails to address community concerns, and contributes to the climate crisis,” said Stefanie Salazar, spokesperson for Extinction Rebellion DC. “The climate crisis is already here. We see it right here in DC through extended heatwaves, droughts, and rising water levels in the Tidal Basin. Now is the time to protect trees, to protect wildlife, to protect ecosystems, and protect our communities, not destroy them. NPS must create a new plan that protects the Rock Creek ecosystem as a whole, mitigates climate change, and integrates input from the community, especially those neighboring the golf course and those already most impacted by the climate crisis.”
NPS plans to plant young trees in place of the ones they cut down; however, these young trees will not offer the same benefits as large, mature trees for decades to come, if they even survive that long. Mature trees are more resilient than young trees and thus more likely to survive extreme weather events and a changing climate.
Mature trees are also more effective at mitigating the urban heat island effect, one of the reasons the DC government is actively trying to increase tree canopy coverage to at least 40% by 2032. Cutting down over 1,200 trees will make Rock Creek Park and the surrounding areas even hotter, and as the District sees more and more extreme heat days each year, those who use the golf course and the park and who live in surrounding neighborhoods will be more susceptible to heat-related illness and death.
These trees also provide crucial habitat to many species in Rock Creek Park, from owls to frogs to coyotes. Removing the trees and adding in bright, artificial lighting that stays on after dark is enough to severely disrupt local wildlife, an especially big concern for already endangered species like the Purple Martins and the Hay’s spring amphipods, the latter which live exclusively within Rock Creek Park.
Cutting down trees and planting new ones is also exorbitantly expensive. NPS and the nonprofit managing the golf course, National Links Trust, already lack the full funding to pull off this plan. NPS could save thousands of dollars by leaving the trees right where they are.
NPS’ plan would accelerate the climate and ecological crises, a blatant disregard for the consequences DC residents already face due to fossil-fuel-driven climate change. Rebels will continue to pressure NPS to reject the plan in order to save an ecosystem that helps sustain the lives of DC residents.
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About Extinction Rebellion
Time has almost entirely run out to address the climate & ecological crisis, including the sixth mass extinction, global pollution, and abrupt, runaway climate change. Societal collapse and mass death are seen as inevitable by scientists and other credible voices if rapid action is not taken.
Extinction Rebellion believes it is a citizen’s duty to rebel, using peaceful civil disobedience, when faced with criminal inactivity by their Government.
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