Conservation officials in Scotland reported Wednesday that the coastal sand dunes at President Donald Trump’s Aberdeenshire Golf Course lost their special status as a protected environmental site, meaning the outgoing US president could build a second course on the vicinity, according to a university researcher.
The Scottish nature protection agency NatureScot said that after the construction of the Trump International Golf Links course in Menie, north of Aberdeen, the dunes no longer “deserve to be retained as part of the site of special scientific interest.”
Scottish authorities have already approved plans for a second Trump golf course alongside the original one at Menie Estate, which opened in 2012.
The sand dunes had been considered a “high-quality example” of a characteristic geological system of northeast Scotland, the agency said, but added that despite Trump’s golf course nature conservation work to protect the rare habitats and plants remaining on the site, “now there is no longer a reason to protect the Menie dunes, as they do not include enough of the special and natural features for which they were designated.”
“This is a bitterly disappointing decision that shows that golf still trumps the environment when it comes to Scotland’s natural heritage,” said Bob Ward, director of policy and communications at the London School’s climate change research institute. of Economics.
Ward, who has been closely monitoring the environmental impact of Trump’s course, said the news “opened the door to further damage to the remaining dunes from the construction of a second Trump golf course on the site.”
Scottish authorities have already approved plans for a second Trump golf course alongside the original at the Menie Estate, which opened in 2012.
The existing golf course and luxury hotel on the estate have not been profitable since they opened.
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