The spectacular sand dunes at Donald Trump’s golf course in Aberdeenshire are expected to be stripped of their special conservation status.

Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH), a government conservation agency, has recommended that the dunes lose their designation as a site of special scientific interest (SSSI) because they have been “partially destroyed” by the course.

SNH has begun a three-month consultation on removing its SSSI status. The move has long been expected but the Trump Organization is furious, accusing the agency of a politically motivated stitch-up.

The area, described by Trump as the “great dunes of Scotland” when he first proposed building a £1bn resort on the site, is part of an extensive mobile dune system known as the Foveran Links, which stretches north up the coast.

The dunes are among the highest in Scotland and shift over time. Many were bulldozed flat or reshaped by Trump to make way for fairways and greens. Maram grass was planted on fix the dunes in place, only for the planted areas to die off or get smothered by sand during winter storms.

The agency has said it wants to remove the golf course area from the Forevan Links SSSI. It disclosed in late 2017 that it was reviewing the dunes’ status after experts in coastal ecology said the area used by Trump no longer deserved special protection.

SNH and other conservation bodies objected to Trump’s proposed resort in 2008, saying it would cause unjustified damage to the SSSI. Alex Salmond’s government rejected their objections on the grounds that the risk was outweighed by the economic value and ambition of Trump’s plans, which included a large hotel, shops, holiday villas and apartments, two golf courses, a golf academy and a riding centre.

So far, only one golf course has been built, although Trump is poised to win outline planning permission from Aberdeenshire council this year to build 500 homes nearby.

The Trump Organization has shut down an environmental advisory group it had committed to have in place as a condition of winning planning permission in 2008.

Sally Thomas, SNH’s director of people and nature, told BBC Scotland the agency normally worked with property developers to ensure wildlife and plant species were protected on such sites.

“The denotification of SSSIs is unusual,” she said. “However, in this case we have found there is no longer a reason to protect the dunes at Menie as they do not include enough of the special, natural features for which they were designated. Most of the time development can take place without damaging important natural features but this was not the case in this instance.”

Sarah Malone, Trump Scotland’s executive vice-president, told the BBC: “This is an utter disgrace and shows SNH has hit an all-time low. To make an announcement to the media before informing us, the actual landowner, shows how politically motivated this decision is. What other SSSI landowner is singled out in this way?

“It’s a stitch-up. Before Donald Trump invested in the site, SNH had little interest in the SSSI at Foveran Links and did even less about it, and has barely been on the property since. Trump International funds a team of leading geomorphological consultants, ecologists and environmental experts and has spent millions on the care, protection and maintenance of the small area of SSSI in Scotland that it owns and yet SNH has offered no support, guidance or help.”

Cllr Martin Ford, the Scottish Green councillor who used his casting vote at a committee meeting to block Trump’s resort application in 2007 - a decision then overturned by the full council, said the Scottish government shared the blame for the dunes being de-designated.

“Mr Trump’s absurdly exaggerated claims of job creation and economic benefit have turned out not to be true. The tragedy is that was entirely foreseeable,” he said.



“The Scottish government’s support for Mr Trump was a terrible decision. It has seen the amazing and beautiful Menie dunes destroyed and not delivered more than a tiny fraction of the jobs and investment Mr Trump promised. The whole thing has been a shameful episode from which we must learn lessons for the future.”