Clint Eastwood’s plans to destroy a forest for a golf course? DENIED!
Clint Eastwood, what were you thinking? Did you mix up your Viagra pills with your Celexa? Because seriously honey, I’m quite disappointed in you after reading this.
Clint Eastwood, the Hollywood actor and director turned small-town mayor, and a development group have been denied permission to cut down more than 15,000 rare pine trees and build a private golf course on California’s Monterey peninsula.
One of America’s most-loved natural landscapes, where ocean breakers roll on to a shoreline dotted with pines, the peninsula is the backdrop of countless photographs and tourist postcards. Wind-blown and often mist-shrouded, it is a must-see spot for many visitors to the West Coast of America. Viewed from a distance it appears to be a pristine primeval forest, one of only five stands of Monterey pine left in existence. But appearances are deceptive, as the forest, which is accessible only by a 17-mile private toll road around the rugged coastline, has already been chopped up for development, with about 3,000 expansive homes and no less than eight private golf courses being built there.
Eastwood, who lives in Monterey and was once mayor of nearby Carmel town, was determined to build yet another private course. Designed by the golfing great Arnold Palmer, the 18-hole links course would have incorporated a driving range and an equestrian centre. There would also have been 60 apartments and two luxury hotels - the Inn at Spanish Bay and the Lodge at Pebble Beach - which had already pre-sold to investors. The course would have been carved out of the 150 acres of native Monterey pine forest that still remain around the other eight golf courses.It would have destroyed the habitat of an endangered orchid, Yadon’s piperia, and removed the wetlands that are so important for the region’s wildlife, such as the California red-legged frog, made famous by Mark Twain’s story about jumping frog contests and already threatened with extinction.
It seems that despite intensive lobbying by Eastwood, the development was doomed by the fact that it would have seen up to 18,000 trees - most of them Monterey pines - falling to the chainsaw and wetlands being filled in, bringing unpredictable changes to the fragile and beautiful coastal habitat.
If any of you have seen the Carmel coastline you’ll agree with me when I say that this would have SERIOUSLY FU**ED IT UP. Clint needs a time-out in his shower chair or something.
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