The Trump International Golf Links Scotland has lead to the “direct loss” of legally protected land, according to newly released documents.
When the golf course, owned by President Trump’s family business, was built, more than 160 acres of the 205-hectare Foveran Links site — legally protected sand dunes — were destroyed.
The golf course is north of Aberdeen.
“The construction has removed the vast majority of the geomorphological interest within the vicinity of the golf course,” Scottish Natural Heritage said in documents released following a public records request. Bob Ward, policy director of the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at the London School of Economics, made the public records request.
Britain’s Observer newspaper first reported the studies.
The golf course was completed in 2012 after approval by Scottish authorities in 2008. Trump International executive vice president Sarah Malone said the company owned less than 5 percent of the site of special scientific interest, or SSSI — and most of it remains untouched.
“As for the small portion that we do own, no other SSSI site in the land has seen more environmental care or investment,” Malone said in a statement to the Associated Press. “The site was ignored until Trump took ownership, and is now celebrated and enjoyed by many.”
Malone said the land developed for the golf course “has changed in parts because we have sown grass, but our environmental consultants and [Scottish Natural Heritage] can confirm that many of the special attributes of the land remains and the wildlife is flourishing.”
The Trump Organization reportedly plans to expand the golf course as part of a larger product to include two golf courses, a 450-room hotel, and as many as 1,500 homes, and unveiled plans last to invest $196 million in the second phase of development.
The company says it has already invested $131 million in what is expected to be a “multi-phased development” costing $983 million.
When the golf course project first began, Trump said he was “fully committed to mitigating the effects of the course on the environment.”
