Trump golf resort wrecked special nature site, reports reveal
Source: The Observer/Guardian
The spectacular dunes system picked by Donald Trump for his golf resort in Aberdeenshire has been “partially destroyed” as a result of the course’s construction, documents released under the Freedom of Information Act have revealed.
Scottish Natural Heritage, which has been under pressure for years to speak out on the issue, now acknowledges that serious damage has been done to the site of special scientific interest (SSSI) at Foveran Links on the Menie estate, north of Aberdeen, since the course opened in 2012, the documents show.
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“Construction of the new golf course involved earthworks, planting of trees, greens and fairways, drainage, irrigation and grass planting,” states one of the reports released by Scottish Natural Heritage inspectors. “This has affected the natural morphology of the dunes and interfered with natural processes. Most of its important geomorphological features have been lost or reduced to fragments. Nearby marine terraces have also been reduced to fragments.”
“These documents show that considerable damage has been done to Foveran Links, and that it is very unlikely that it will retain its SSSI status,” said Bob Ward, the policy director at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, who obtained the reports under FoI. Ward has also asked the Scottish government to investigate whether proper environmental monitoring has been carried out at the site since 2012.
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/jul/29/donald-trump-golf-environment-sssi-damaged-broken-promises
This was widely predicted, and informally claimed by others. But these are official reports. A trashed environment for Trump's ego and business. Obvious metaphor is obvious.
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And a painfully obvious predictor of his utter lack of concern for conservation, nature, the environment, neighbors, or, indeed, any living things (including humans). Trump's lack of concern for, well, life - and the parallel POV of his cabinet (Zinke, Pruitt and successor, Perry, etc etc) is reflected in his/their almost gleeful destruction of U.S. natural resources and of our hard-won progress in cleaning up the environment, addressing climate change, and preparing for a fossil-fuel-free future: pulling out of the Paris accords, moving to forbid California to have higher environmental standards than the diminished standards set by their anti-environment EPA, propping up the coal industry against common sense, reducing the size of national monuments, allowing drilling and mining in protected wilderness areas, etc etc - I'm getting too angry and upset to complete the list. But 
Mueller, please hurry.
Congress, please get a spine.
Please may Dems win in November.
The good news is that dunes move w/the wind and Trump's eye sore can be fixed.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/nov/08/trump-golf-course-has-ruined-dunes-habitat
Trump won approval to build on the legally protected dunes because he had pledged to create up 6,000 jobs by building a five-star hotel with 450 rooms, shops, a sports complex, timeshare flats, two golf courses and housing estates at an estimated cost of £1bn.
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To date, Trump has so far built one 18-hole course which is only open for seven months a year, a practice range and a small clubhouse with a restaurant and shop, and converted the estate’s manor house into a boutique hotel with 16 rooms. It employs the full-time equivalent of 95 people.
Sarah Malone, one of the Trump Organization’s executives at the resort, has told the BBC it has so far invested £100m on the site and claimed that 150 people work at the site, many of whom are part-time and include self-employed caddies.
The official accounts for Trump International Golf Course Scotland, the company that owns the site, show it owes Trump nearly £41m and has never yet made a profit. It lost nearly £1.2m last year.
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