US President Donald Trump has drawn ridicule world-wide for his suggestion that Californians "rake the forest" to prevent wildfires from spreading. The tip came from the president of Finland, revealed Mr Trump on his weekend visit to California.
"You gotta take care of the floors. You know the floors of the forest, very important. I was with the president of Finland and he called it a forest nation, and they spend a lot of time on raking and cleaning and doing things and they don't have any problem".
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According to AP News, Finnish president Sauli Niinisto said that he doesn't recall ever telling Mr Trump to rake the forests. While he does remember saying "we take care of our forest", referencing Finland's surveillance system for monitoring fires "raking and cleaning and doing things" was not part of their conversation.
Trump doubled down on his raking comments in an interview with Fox News on Sunday saying that he was "watching the firemen the other day and they were raking areas, they were raking areas where the fire was right over there. And they're raking them, they're on fire. They should have all been raked out. You wouldn't have the fires."
Yana Valachovic, a forest advisor with University of California's Cooperative Extension programme said that Mr Trump was almost right "his general sentiment is correct we need to manage fuels. Managing that pine litter adjacent to our homes and buildings is super important. But the reality is, to manage every little bit of fuel with a rake is not practical."
Stuff reports that, according to Ms Valachovic, raking is an effective way to clear light debris like leaves and pine needles away from buildings. But it is not of much use on the forest floor, where fires rip through dense bush that only heavy machinery will be able to clear.
Mr Trump's suggestion has received a slew of acidic responses from Twitter, with citizens of Finland uploading pictures of them raking, sweeping and vacuuming their woodland floors. Among the pictures are people pointing out that the climate of Finland is vastly different to that of California, and that perhaps "Making America rake again" is not the suggestion that Californians need right now.
Newshub.
