Did Finland President say Preventing Forest Fires with Raking?

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The U.S President Donald Trump’s bizarre advice on “raking and cleaning” forest floors to prevent wildfires may not have originated with Finnish President Sauli Niinistö, as he claimed. Finnish newspaper Ilta-Sanomat published an interview of President Niinistö on Sunday. Niinistö said in his interview that he doesn’t recall ever speaking with Trump regarding “raking” forest floors. On Saturday, Trump suggested that wildfires weren’t an issue in Finland due to Niinistö had informed him regarding how the Finnish people are constantly “raking and cleaning and doing things” to prevent wildfires in their “forest nation”. Donald Trump delivered his words standing alongside the Governor of California, Jerry Brown and Governor-elect Gavin Newsom. He was on a visit to a charred portion of a Northern California town suffered by the wildfires.

Trump informed reporters, “You’ve got to take care of the floors. You know the floors of the forest, very important. You look at other countries where they do it differently and it’s an entirely different story”. He also said, “I was with the president of Finland and he said, ‘we have a much different, we’re a forest nation’. He called it a forest nation, and they spent a lot of time on raking and cleaning and doing things. And they don’t have any problem”.

On Sunday, the Finnish president informed the Ilta-Sanomat newspaper that he did speak briefly with Trump regarding forest management. Both were met in Paris for Armistice Day on November 11. But he recalled the conversation focusing on the California wildfires and a new surveillance system Finland uses to monitor potential fire threats. But, Niinistö said that he doesn’t recall any discussion of “raking” forest floors as something he would have suggested in any way. He also confirmed that he just made the comment regarding Finland being able to “take care of our forests”.