Finland's licensing regulator has ordered Google to stop clearing forest for AI data centers, and residents told The Guardian that wolves are now walking into nearby villages.
Google's Finland country manager has apologized for unauthorized clearing near Muhos, where 816 acres of forest are now an expanse of mud. A second site, with roughly 500 acres cleared, sits near Otanmäki. Together that is about 1,300 acres. The Finnish Licensing and Supervision Authority (LVV) issued stop orders covering Muhos and Kajaani, which is near Otanmäki. A Google spokesperson said the company "will fully comply with LVV's requests" and wants "an active, open dialogue with all authorities."
The wolf claim comes from The Guardian's interviews with residents. "We had wolves coming into the village because all the wild animals moved out of the forest," said Anni Ranta, 53, whose family has lived in Otanmäki for generations. Locals also cited construction noise, streams turning brown and rare birds being pushed out. A representative of the Finnish Association for Nature Conservation described Google's disregard for environmental policy as unprecedented and clear. Ranta also fears that US-owned data centers will make Finland a more attractive target for Russian aggression.
No wildlife counts or official confirmation have been reported, so the wolves are one resident's account. The documented part is the regulator's order. That distinction matters because complaints about data center noise, water and habitat have surfaced in the US and other countries, and they usually end in a dispute over trade-offs. Here, a regulator has sided with the objectors on the basic question of whether the clearing was allowed.
That is a different problem from a community simply disliking a neighbor. Mud cannot be un-cleared, and Google's apology and pledge to comply do not answer whether the projects can proceed on land that has already been stripped.