West Clare golf club offsets global warming

Doonbeg golf club yesterday lodged plans with Clare County Council for a programme of coastal protection works to counteract damage expected to be caused by global warming.

Experts employed by the golf club say: "A predicted sea-level rise and increased storminess from the north Atlantic resulting from global warming will affect the long-term movement of the dune line at Doonbeg", threatening the future of the course.

The golf club has conducted a digitised analysis of coastal erosion in Doonbeg during the past 100 years.

Using an Ordnance Survey map from the 1890s and aerial photos from 1954, 1973 and 1997, it shows the significant retreat of the dune system, with the northern half of the dunes receding by 40 to 45 metres, while dunes in the southern half of the beach have receded by 30 to 35 metres.

Importantly, the analysis shows that at the southern end of the course, where the 18th green is, the dune line was protected by a rocky outcrop, and there was no change over the 100-year period.

The golf club says that if it took no action to counter the threats that are posed by global warming, "it would result in a gradual retreat of the dune system, with the possibility of the dunes retreating by between seven and 11 metres in a one-in-50 years south-westerly storm".

Plans lodged with the council will mean the golf club placing an eight-metre-high barrier in places containing over 80,000 tonnes of rock at three strategic stretches along the beach.

These stretches will protect the northern, central and southern parts of the course that lie adjacent to the beach.

The Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) lodged with the application shows that the golf club failed to stop the ravages of global warming at Doonbeg in 2001, when "soft" dune stabilisation works were washed away during a storm.

The EIS says there will be no negative impact on the vertigo angustior snail, and if anything the snail's habitat will be preserved.

It adds that the reinforcement works of the dunes are not in front of or within a Special Area of Conservation.

Furthermore, the golf club has been in talks with the National Parks and Wildlife Service about the proposed works.

A decision on the application is expected from Clare County Council next year.