Chestnut Grove Faces Demolition for West Virginia AI Data Center

A 200-tree orchard of blight-resistant American chestnuts in West Virginia is slated for removal to make way for the “Monarch Compute Campus,” a hyperscale data center being developed by Nscale in collaboration with Nvidia and Caterpillar. The project’s plans call for a facility covering more than 2,250 acres and delivering 8 gigawatts of computing capacity to AI firms such as Anthropic.

Futurism

Chestnut blight, a necrotrophic fungus introduced from Japan and China, swept across North America beginning in 1904. With no natural resistance, the disease killed an estimated four billion chestnut trees in the United States, leaving only stumps and a handful of mature groves. As of 2023, fewer than 4,300 acres of fruit-producing chestnut trees remain across the continental U.S.

Futurism

The development would occupy over 2,250 acres—far larger than the 200-acre orchard it would replace—and would provide 8 gigawatts of AI-focused compute power.

Futurism

The Global Justice Ecology Project’s publication *From the Front Lines: Struggles for Justice* characterizes the orchard as an “irreplaceable” genetics library, serving as the primary seed source for chestnut restoration in West Virginia. Nscale’s promotional materials emphasize the project’s role in anchoring America’s compute foundation, while the Front Lines report stresses the ecological value of the trees and the difficulty of halting a venture backed by substantial financial resources.

Futurism

Conservationists argue that the loss of the orchard would eliminate a critical repository of genetic diversity needed to revive the American chestnut species. Given the species’ near-extinction and the limited remaining acreage of mature chestnut groves, the removal of this seed source could impede long-term restoration efforts across the region.

Futurism