Trump’s golf course ‘destroyed area of protected sand dunes’
Documents show that US President Donald Trump’s family business has “destroyed the vast majority” of an environmentally sensitive area of sand dunes near its golf course north of Aberdeen. Scottish Natural Heritage, which is responsible for the management and monitoring of sites of special scientific interest (SSSI), has found that construction of the golf course has “led to direct loss of ” as much as 168 acres of mobile sand dunes protected under Scottish law.
The destruction occurred despite a personal commitment by Mr Trump to minimise the damage when Scottish authorities granted permission for the project. The documents were obtained under a freedom of information request by Bob Ward, the policy director of the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at the London School of Economics.
Donald Trump opened his controversial golf course on the Menie estate in Aberdeenshire in 2012. It’s partly built on Foveran Links, an (SSSI), originally listed as one of the most exceptional sand dune systems in Britain.
SNH previously warned a planning inquiry the course would damage the SSSI.