Trump says new Scottish golf course ‘one of most eco-friendly ever’. Experts disagree

Donald Trump has said he is not a “great believer” in man-made climate change, repeatedly referring to global warming as a “hoax”.

The US presidential candidate recently suggested that even if sea levels do rise, it would be a great opportunity to build some more coastal properties.

Yet his company is keen to talk up its green credentials on the north-east coast of Scotland – claiming its new golf course in Aberdeenshire will be “one of the most environmentally-friendly and sustainable ever built”.

Trump International Scotland unveiled plans for a second course at Menie earlier this week, promising one of the “great wonders in the world of golf” would open in summer 2025.

Mr Trump’s first course at Menie became mired in a series of controversies. Rural residents resisted attempts to buy out their farmhouse homes, a bitter dispute pitched as a David-versus-Goliath battle by the world’s media.

Alex Salmond’s SNP administration in Edinburgh eventually stepped in to approve the initial course, which opened in 2012.

But environmentalists, having warned of the risks to the Foveran Links sand dune system, blamed the course for spoiling the striking landscape.

Nature Scot, the country’s public body for conservation, stripped the site of protected status in 2020 after it found that the golf course had “partially destroyed” the dune system.

So environmental experts are sceptical about the boasts being made now for the 18-hole expansion, set to be named the MacLeod Course after Trump’s Scottish-born mother Mary.

Environmentally-friendly?

Trump International has argued that the MacLeod’s Course’s carbon footprint will be kept down because local sand and soil are being used.

“Virtually all materials used in the creation of the new course, other than drainage and irrigation pipework, have been sourced on site,” the press release stated.

However, environmental campaigners have argued that it is the disruption of the local sand dunes – and the fixing them in place with huge quantities of marram grass – that is the problem.

Prof Jim Hansom, a geomorphologist at the University of Glasgow, told i that “biblical amounts of sand were bulldozed and remodelled, destroying the underlying soil structure” to create the first course.

The Foveran Links sand dunes once moved “dynamically”, allowing for natural re-vegetation of plants as they shifted, said the expert in coastal landforms.

Prof Hansom added: “It had very few parallels elsewhere in Europe and none in the UK. It acted as a unique example of developing habitat for rare plants and grazing for deer and migrating geese. To have steamrolled all that for a golf course seemed crazy.”

NatureScot said the stabilisation of mobile sand for greens and fairways had “destroyed the dynamic nature of the site” when deciding to remove Foveran Links’ status as a site of special scientific interest (SSSI) in 2020.

Bob Ward, policy director of the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, said the idea that adding another 18 holes next door to the existing course would be environmentally-friendly was “laughable” and “complete nonsense” given the harm already done.

He added: “The damage is severe and irreparable, so there is no way they can credibly make that claim.”

Water systems and wildlife

Trump International says an “environmentally-friendly freshwater and drainage system has been engineered to provide long-term sustainable irrigation” at the new course.

The organisation also claims that vegetation has been “successfully translocated allowing indigenous plant habitats to thrive and expand, with many new wildlife habitats emerging within the new wetlands”.

But anti-development groups are not convinced that new, artificial lakes will make up for the disruption to the environment and local wildlife.

Naturalists have warned the potential effects on otter, deer, badgers and pink-footed geese, as well as the insects and other invertebrates ripped up from the sand.

There has been no long-term monitoring of the impact of the first golf course. The Trump organisation unilaterally scrapped the Menie Environmental Management Advisory Group (MEMAG) in 2013, despite it being a condition of planning permission.

Ruchir Shah, the Scottish Wildlife Trust’s director of external affairs, told i that another golf course risked “worsening the nature and climate crises by destroying these rare habitats and negatively impacting the wildlife that lives there”.

Prof Hansom remains angry that Aberdeenshire Council approved the second golf course in 2019, arguing that the Trump organisation’s claims “cannot be trusted”.

The geomorphologist added: “To go ahead and vote for a second course was unbelievably blinkered, given the abject failure of the Trump organisation to maintain their promises from the first course.”

Not everyone is so cynical. David Wallace, a 66-year-old local resident at the nearby village of Balmedie, defended the changes brought about by the Trump organisation.

“I don’t want to see the environment ruined – thankfully that’s not what I’m seeing,” Mr Wallace told i.

“I used to walk my dogs on the area where the second course is being built, and I think the landscape is actually being enhanced. There are lakes there now, rather than boggy land.”

Economic benefits worth environmental trade off?

Trump International originally promised 500 houses for sale, 950 holiday apartments, and a 450-room hotel as part of a £1bn investment at Menie. But no homes and no new hotel have been built.

Mr Trump’s former resort director Neil Hobday told the BBC he felt “hoodwinked” that the huge development never materialised.

Jim Gifford, the former Aberdeenshire Council leader who had backed the project, admitted to the broadcaster in 2017 that the “economic benefit hasn’t come through”.

Despite the major disappointment, in 2019 Aberdeenshire Council gave the Trump organisation permission to build 500 luxury homes and 50 holiday units at Menie next to the golf courses.

Liberal Democrat councillor Isobel Davidson – who voted against the second golf course in 2019 – said the hope of an economic boom has not worked out so far.

“There is quite a bit of golf tourism,” Ms Davison told i. “[But] it hasn’t contributed what you would have hoped to the area, economically.”

She added: “I felt we had done enough harm to the coastal plain [with the first course].”

Mr Wallace said the majority of people in nearby Balmedie were supportive of the Trump development – even if some harboured negative views “towards Mr Trump himself”.

The resident, chair of the local community council, said the village’s hotel, shops and restaurants had all benefited from the increase in golf tourists.

“There is also a perception locally that the development will not do any harm to house prices,” he said.

Asked about the criticism made by environmentalists, a spokesperson for Trump International Scotland told i: “Sadly, there are people who cannot face up to the reality of the excellence of what has been achieved.”

They added: “We brought in the very best ecologists, geomorphologists and environmental scientists to ensure the courses work seamlessly within the landscape.”

The Trump organisation spokesperson also vowed the 500 homes would go ahead in future, saying the business remains “fully committed to its long-term vision for this site which includes a wide-range of accommodations and properties.”