Migratory Birds Are Counting on These D.C. Golf Courses And Trump’s Takeover Could End That

Tucked into a narrow peninsula where the Potomac River meets the Washington Channel, East Potomac Golf Links might look like an ordinary municipal golf course to most passersby. But for hundreds of migratory birds making their exhausting seasonal journeys up and down the Eastern Seaboard, it is something far more vital: a place to rest, feed, and recover before pressing onward. Birdwatchers have recorded at least 264 species at this remarkable urban corridor, including yellow warblers and the at-risk willow flycatcher, drawn to the greenery like a beacon in an otherwise dense and developed cityscape.

This is precisely why the National Links Trust, a nonprofit co-founded by landscape architect Mike McCartin and his colleague Will Smith, has spent years working to transform D.C.’s three historic municipal golf courses into models of ecological responsibility alongside accessible recreation. Six years ago, the organization secured a 50-year lease with the National Park Service to restore degraded wetlands, replant native grasses, remove invasive species, and even return buried streams to the surface. Their vision was bold: proving that golf and genuine environmental stewardship can thrive side by side.

According to The 51st, the Trump administration abruptly terminated that lease in late December, accusing the nonprofit of moving too slowly. Critics argue the real motivation is clearing the way for a presidential takeover of the courses. The fallout has been painful. A $9.5 million Clean Water Act ecosystem restoration project at Langston Golf Course, which would have reconstructed wetlands and filtered polluted stormwater before it reached local waterways, is now on the verge of collapse. Restoration work at Rock Creek has slowed to a crawl.

Yet NLT’s team continues showing up. Wildlife biologist Dan Rauch describes watching 16 yellow warblers build nests in a corridor that NLT cleared of rusting, abandoned vehicles. These birds, he notes, are both ecological workers and living indicators of human health. Losing these corridors does not just harm wildlife — it diminishes the web of nature that sustains all of us.

As of mid-May, NLT reached a partial agreement to retain leases at Langston and Rock Creek, with interim operations continuing at East Potomac. The fight for these green spaces is far from over, but the movement to protect them is very much alive.

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