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The company developing a data center campus in Mason County will pay to move chestnut and chinquapin trees at the former Clements State Tree Nursery, Governor Patrick Morrisey said in a statement October 10.
Morrisey said the trees will be moved elsewhere on the property in late 2027, during their dormant season and under the supervision of professional arborists. They could become part of an arboretum or of the site’s landscaping, he said.
“Nscale will cover the full cost of the preservation and relocation efforts, with no expense to West Virginia taxpayers,” Morrisey said.
Nscale is the company behind the Monarch Compute Campus, a data center project in Mason County. In a March statement, the governor’s office described Nscale as a global AI infrastructure company and said it would seek to acquire American Intelligence & Power Corporation, including the Mason County campus. WCHS reported that the company secured up to 2,250 acres earlier this year.
WSAZ reported in April that Nscale and Fidelis Energy planned to build the campus on more than 2,000 acres. A company executive told the station the first phase would bring 700 permanent jobs, and the station reported that the company expected the campus to be operating in the second half of 2027.
In August, the Herald-Dispatch of Huntington reported that the AI company Anthropic had reached a six-year, $45 billion deal to lease computing capacity at the campus, citing reports by Bloomberg and CNBC.
Morrisey said he would work with Nscale, the West Virginia Department of Agriculture and “concerned citizens” to address concerns about the trees. WV MetroNews reported that some residents had worried about how construction of the campus could affect them.
The Global Justice Ecology Project, an advocacy group, has urged supporters to contact state officials, Nscale and Anthropic about the trees. After the governor’s statement, the group said mature trees cannot be relocated and should be kept where they are.
The chestnut orchard at the nursery has about 200 trees, according to the November 2024 newsletter of the West Virginia chapter of The American Chestnut Foundation. Chestnut blight is widespread among them, the newsletter said, but a few of the larger trees appear resistant enough to keep growing, and more than 900 nuts were harvested there that September. It said some of the trees are not pure American chestnut.
The newsletter also said the land had been leased to Fidelis, which it described as a Houston-based carbon-capture company, for a planned plant.
Morrisey said the plan follows an October 5 assessment involving The American Chestnut Foundation, the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources and the Department of Agriculture. He said the foundation and state natural resources and forestry agencies have already established several two-acre stands on state land, along with two more plots of grafts and seedlings, to preserve the trees’ genetic lineage.
The West Virginia Division of Forestry closed the nursery in May 2021 after sustained financial losses, according to the statement. Morrisey said the site remains undisturbed and that access for harvesting seeds and saplings has continued since 2023, “first under Fidelis and now Nscale.” He said the trees will remain accessible for harvesting after the move.
“While West Virginia pursues major economic development opportunities, it must protect the natural resources and heritage that make our state special,” Morrisey said.
