Photo by Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images.

Republican Presidential hopeful Donald Trump really isn’t winning a lot of friends in the District. To recap: his new hotel at the Old Post Office Building was not met without its fair share of criticism. Then, his controversial remarks about immigrants led to José Andrés backing out of opening a new restaurant in the hotel.

Now, there’s a petition circulating demanding him to replace about a mile and a half of trees he cut down on the shore of the Potomac River to make way for his Virginia golf course.

Five years ago, Trump clear cut about 450 trees along the Potomac River so that there’d be idyllic “unobstructed views” of the river from his namesake golf course in Loudoun County, the Bay Journal reported. Since then, The Potomac Consevancy—an environment nonprofit working to protect the Potomac River—has been trying to get Trump to replace the trees.

“His actions degrade water quality for outdoor enthusiasts who fish, paddle, run and bike along the river,” Melissa Diemand Senior Director of Communications, tells DCist. “And it negatively affects the five million local residents whose drinking water comes from the Potomac.”

In fact, Trump’s tree-clearing was only barely legal. If he had cleared trees from the shoreline in Fairfax county without permission, it would’ve been illegal. But the same restrictions don’t apply in Loudoun County. At the time, The Potomac Conservancy tried to work with Trump Golf Course’s administration to find a mutual solution.

“We tried to engage them for the better part of a year and they were not cooperative,” Diemand says.

Now that Trump’s presidential campaign is heating up, The Potomac Conservancy thinks it’s the perfect opportunity to bring attention back to this issue that was essentially ignored for five years. In July, the nonprofit started a Change.org petition urging Trump to donate “500 mature, native trees to NOVA Parks and fix his clear-cutting disaster.”

In an op-ed for the Post, Potomac Conservancy President outlined why Trump’s actions were harmful for the local ecosystem. From the Post:

Trump’s “unobstructed views” come at a high cost, and this time, local residents will pay the price. The protective trees and shrubs that line our local river and streams form an unparalleled natural filtration system. In addition to stabilizing the shoreline with its deep root systems, the green filter strip running along the Potomac substantially reduces topsoil erosion and helps to prevent chemical pollution and farm run-off from flowing into the river below.

The willful destruction of more than a mile and a half of mature trees will worsen water quality for thousands of outdoor enthusiasts who fish, paddle, run and bike along the Potomac. More significantly, however, these actions will have a negative effect on the nearly 5 million people — more than 85 percent of area residents — whose drinking water comes from the Potomac.

Since the petition was launched, more than 5,000 people have signed the petition, and The Potomac Conservancy is hoping to hit 7,500 by October 31st. Still, no word from Trump.

“Trump has not engaged with us since the petition has gone live,” Diemand says. “We’re hoping reaching [our goal] will force him to respond.”