In Another Giveaway to the Commanders’ Billionaire Owner, the D.C. Council Is Set To Waive $1 Million in Fines to Chop Down Irreplaceable Heritage Trees

Dozens of immense willow oaks, red oaks, and lindens tower around the gargantuan husk of the long-defunct Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium in Northeast. The District Department of Transportation calls them “heritage trees,” large, mature trees that are illegal to cut down under D.C. law due to their irreplaceable environmental benefits.

But the D.C. Council, with Mayor Muriel Bowser’s blessing, just paved the way for razing an estimated 31 heritage trees around the stadium grounds—waving sizable illegal tree removal fines in the process. The exemption will amount to an estimated $1 million giveaway to the team’s billionaire majority owner, Josh Harris—that’s in addition to the approximately $1 billion D.C. taxpayers will supply over the next decade to overhaul the storied sports palace. (City Paper owner Mark Ein is part of the team’s ownership group.)

The proposed exemption to the Tree Canopy Protection Amendment Act of 2016 has alarmed environmentalists who say it would represent an unprecedented erosion of the District’s nation-leading tree protection laws.

“Unfortunately, now it seems like a trend,” says Kelly Collins Choi, director of policy and land conservation at Casey Trees, the nonprofit that plants and protects trees in the District. “It opens the door for additional exemptions that may undermine the intent and the strength of the heritage tree law.”