The statements of Donald Trump, citing the example of Finland in the prevention of forest fires through the grid search of the woods have been met with a mixture of surprise and consternation in this country of the north-east of Europe. Speaking to journalists this weekend in California, where he was to assess the impact of the fires that have devastated this State, the american president had challenged the local system of forest management, while asserting that Finland had the solution.
He had quoted the president of this country, who would have said to him that his fellow citizens “spend a lot of time raking and cleaning up and doing things (in the forest) and they do not have a problem.” But president Sauli Niinisto has entrusted the publishing Sunday in the journal Ilta-Sanomat that he could not remember having spoken of combing when the two heads of State met in Paris a week before: “I said to him that Finland is a country covered with forests, but that we have a good system and network warning”.
“Dear America, we do not rake the area, picking our forests,”
On the social networks, the Finnish are raging, posting photos of the representative with a rake. Sunday night, the keywords in conjunction with the sweep were among the popular on Twitter in Finland, a country covered with 72% of forest.
“Dear America, We do not rake the area, picking our forests. It is found that it is winter here most of the year,” commented the one at the top of the illustrations of the snowy forests.
“I would compare it to may not be the climate in Finland and California,” remarked another, who adds that “80% of the country is classified as forest estate. We don’t “manicure” so not all of it.”
The chief of emergency services in the country, Yrjo Niskanen, considered that Donald Trump may be referring to the removal of dead branches, and waste, while stressing that this was not done with rakes and that this wood was recovered to be transformed into a source of energy. “I have never thought of before that this wood was removed because of the risk of fire, this is not mentioned in any manual maintenance of the forests. This is done purely for economic reasons,” he said in the journal Iltalehti .
California is facing since ten days in the fire-the deadliest in its history, which were 79 deaths in total. More than 1,000 people are still missing. The president, Donald Trump had gone on Saturday to Paradise, a small town wiped off the map by flames and where are reported the majority of victims, to ascertain the extent of the damage. Again, the intervention of the president has not gone unnoticed, since the front of the cameras, has renamed the city martyr “Pleasure” (Enjoyment).
