Donald Trump's Scotland golf course ruined a sand dune system, new satellite images reveal

Back in 2006, former US President Donald Trump purchased a length of coastline land in Aberdeenshire, northeast Scotland with the intention of developing 'the world's best golf course'. There was noisy local opposition to the plan then, but Trump's relationship with Scotland's then-first minister, Alex Salmond proved beneficial. In 2008, the Scottish government stepped in to approve his plan, touting the economic benefits the resort would bring to the country. Business Insider reported, Despite worries that building an 18-hole course would ruin the sand dunes surrounding it, Trump went forward with the project, declaring, "We will stabilize the dunes. They will be there forever. This will be environmentally better after it [the course] is built than it is before."

The area of the highly delicate habitat on which Trump International Golf Links was built, however, was largely destroyed, as conservationists predicted. Because they had been partially demolished, officials stated in December 2020 that the coastal sand dunes at Trump's resort would lose their designation as a protected environmental monument. Between March 2010 and April 2021, the prized Foveran Links sand dunes were drastically destroyed, according to before-and-after photographs obtained from satellite technology firm Maxar.

During March '10

According to a government document designating Foveran Links as a site of exceptional scientific interest, the site included sections of mobile sand and semi-fixed dunes, as well as marshes, dune grassland, and low-lying areas known as dune slacks.

Foveran Links was "a very high-quality example of a sand dune system characteristic of north east Scotland, and was of exceptional importance for the wide variety of coastal landforms and processes," Business Insider reported, citing NatureScot, Scotland's conservation agency. A closer look at the image reveals the features in more detail:

During April '21

Images obtained in April 2021 of the course show that many of the sand dune features in the southern third of Foveran Links, where Trump's golf course was created, had been substantially destroyed. Here's a quick rundown of the area:

Earlier this year, The Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment's policy and communications director, Bob Ward, stated that building a golf course on top means that the dunes cannot move, thus they must be stabilised. So they've essentially planted plants on top of them and placed physical limits on them, so the dunes can't move and the system is no longer dynamic. Sand dunes are a dynamic system, they're wind-driven, so they go backwards and forwards, Business Insider reported.

Image: Satellite image © 2021 Maxar Technologies