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Parks Official Is Blamed In Snyder Tree Cutting
Blue plastic tubes surround seedlings planted on a hillside between Daniel M. Snyder's Potomac estate and the C& O Canal after 130 trees were cut down in 2004.
(By Katherine Frey -- The Washington Post)
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Snyder had been trying for years to get permission to remove the trees behind his house, including an offer in 2002 to donate $25,000 to the Park Service if the trees could be cut, according to government documents. The previous superintendent of the park, Douglas D. Faris, denied the request.
In spring 2004, Snyder renewed his request for permission to cut the trees. Smith said Snyder and his attorneys called him and requested a meeting, which was held over lunch at the Snyder residence.
At the lunch, Snyder said he needed help expediting his request because a geothermal heating system was being installed in his back yard, Smith told The Post. Once it was in place, Snyder said, he wouldn't be able to place heavy equipment in his back yard, according to Smith's recollection of the meeting.
About two months after the lunch, Smith said, he took about a half-dozen officials -- including Brandt and staffers from the Park Service's regional office -- to Snyder's house. "I said, 'Mr. Snyder, these are the people you will have to work with to resolve the issue,' and I never touched the issue again," Smith told The Post.
According to the inspector general's report, Brandt -- against the advice of the Park Service's chief horticulturist -- then began working on the details of the agreement with Snyder. In the rush to complete the deal, the Park Service failed to adhere to the National Environmental Policy Act, which requires federal agencies to consider the impact of proposed land-use decisions.
If they had, the report concludes, the Park Service probably would have discovered that the removal of the trees -- even nonnative species -- would harm the environment. That removal has caused the hill behind Snyder's house, on Park Service property, to begin eroding, according to the report.
Snyder is now trying to get county approval to shore up a retaining wall before it crumbles into the canal, Montgomery County officials said.
Staff researcher Bobbye Pratt contributed to this report.
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