Google's Illegal Clear-Cut in Finland: 400,000 Trees Gone for Data Centres

Google's Illegal Clear-Cut in Finland: 400,000 Trees Gone for Data Centres

A quarter-million trees erased at Muhos

Outside the rural town of Muhos in northern Finland, a forest of about 330 hectares is gone. An estimated 250,000 trees once stood on the site, a stretch roughly 3 kilometres long and 2 kilometres wide, just 400 metres from the Oulujoki River. Google stripped the land down to bare earth, removing even the topsoil to prepare the ground for a data centre. Ecologists estimate that another 150,000 trees were felled at a second site in Otanmaki, about 100 kilometres to the south-east, bringing the combined toll to roughly 400,000 trees.

Work started before impact reviews were done

The Finnish Licensing and Supervision Authority found that Google clear-cut the land without completing the legally required environmental impact assessments. On 6 October the authority wrote to the company ordering a halt to all work significantly altering the environment at both Muhos and Otanmaki. Separate reporting says Google claims an agency expert gave a go-ahead in June for preparatory earthworks within the limits of the building code, while the regulator had already determined in May that an environmental impact assessment was required, and satellite images showed felling continued into August.

Wolves in the village, brown water in the stream

With the forest gone, wildlife scattered. Anni Ranta, a 53-year-old Otanmaki resident whose family has lived there for generations, said wolves that once lived in the woods came into the village because the wild animals they preyed on had fled. At Muhos, brown runoff is flowing off the bare site into a stream that feeds the Oulujoki River, raising fears about downstream water quality. Conservationists also report that three-toed woodpeckers nesting in the forest were displaced. Muhos resident and former fisherman Antti Jakonen condemned the operation as reckless, done the American way with no sense, and urged Google to help restore the local salmon population wiped out decades ago by hydropower dams.

Google apologises, blaming its reading of the law

Google Finland country manager Antti Jarvinen apologised last week, saying the company had acted on its best understanding of the legislation at the time. Google says it has suspended preparatory work at both sites, submitted a formal response to the regulator, and is working to protect water quality before replanting about 130 hectares of trees at Muhos. Conservationists call the replanting plan far too small against the 330 hectares cleared. Because the timber was felled illegally, it cannot be sold to wood-processing plants. The two sites belong to an AI infrastructure programme worth about 13 billion euros, the largest of its kind ever undertaken in Finland, which drew public criticism from US President Donald Trump in September when he urged Google to build the centres in America instead.

More than 93,000 Finns demand tougher rules

The scandal has provoked a national outcry. More than 93,000 people have signed a petition demanding stricter data-centre regulation and a compensation fee for local communities harmed by environmental damage. Hanna Halmeenpaa, chair of the Finnish Association for Nature Conservation, said she had never seen any company behave this way in Finland, calling it pure arrogance.

A halt order, and fines still on the table

The regulator gave Google until 23 October to stop the unlawful work, warning of enforcement proceedings and fines for non-compliance. Whether the company's replanting and water-protection pledges satisfy the authorities, and what penalties follow, will decide the fate of the biggest data-centre bet the Nordics have ever seen.