Viral post says a rare American chestnut grove in West Virginia will be bulldozed for an AI data center, but the state says the trees will be relocated, not destroyed
A rare grove of 200 American chestnut trees, grown from survivors of the early twentieth-century fungal blight and planted in the 1970s at the former Clements State Tree Nursery in Mason County, West Virginia, is set to be bulldozed in November 2026 for a data center, and conservationists are raising the alarm over the loss of one of the country’s most important remaining stands. The mature trees were propagated from rare wild survivors that withstood the blight, and the orchard now functions as a genetic library and a primary seed repository for efforts to restore the species across North America. Clearing it would remove that source material. The threat comes from the multi-billion-dollar Monarch Compute Campus, a development planned for the area to house high-density data centers for artificial-intelligence processing. The facility requires thousands of acres, and the historic tree nursery sits inside the proposed construction footprint. Forestry advocates are asking the developers and state officials to adjust the building boundaries and permanently protect the grove as the conflict between the infrastructure project and the trees continues.
Context
The fight shows how quickly AI data center expansion is colliding with local conservation concerns, and how viral claims can outrun the official record.
The American chestnut was nearly wiped out by a fungal blight in the early 20th century. According to The American Chestnut Foundation, the trees at the former Clements State Tree Nursery in West Columbia were planted in 1976 from large surviving wild chestnuts, and seed from them has been distributed across West Virginia. Nscale is developing the Monarch Compute Campus in Mason County, which it says will start with 1.35 GW of AI computing capacity.
- Futurism: One of America's last remaining chestnut groves could soon be wiped out for an AI data center
- WV Governor's Office: plan to preserve historic trees at former Clements nursery
- The American Chestnut Foundation: The American chestnut trees at Clements
- WV MetroNews: Morrisey statement on tree preservation near Monarch Compute Campus
- WCHS: Trees at former Mason County nursery to be relocated after Nscale acquisition
Deep dive
On October 11, Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) posted that a rare grove of 200 American chestnut trees at the former Clements State Tree Nursery in Mason County, West Virginia, is set to be bulldozed in November 2026 for the Monarch Compute Campus, and that conservationists are raising the alarm.
The claim traces back to a call to action in From the Front Lines, a publication of the Global Justice Ecology Project, which Futurism amplified. Futurism described the orchard, in the publication's words, as a vital genetics library and the primary seed source to restore the species across West Virginia. A CRBC News review said advocacy materials gave November 1 as the clearing date, but found no mainstream report or public permit confirming that timeline.
By the time of the post, officials had responded. On October 10, Governor Patrick Morrisey's office said an October 5 assessment with The American Chestnut Foundation and state agencies produced a preservation plan, that the former nursery remains undisturbed, and that the trees will be relocated within the property in late 2027, during their dormant season, with Nscale paying the full cost. WCHS reported that Nscale had acquired the land.
The American Chestnut Foundation posted an update the same day citing a developer statement that the nursery is a separate property and not part of the Project Tamarack data center site, so accounts of who controls the land still differ.
What to expect next
Watch whether the relocation plan holds and whether large, decades old chestnut trees survive being moved, which arborists will have to manage in late 2027.
Also watch whether Nscale, the state Division of Forestry or the developer of Project Tamarack clarify who owns and controls the nursery parcel, and whether the dispute feeds wider local opposition to large AI data center campuses in West Virginia.