A couple of years ago, my husband and I had the pleasure of spending time in Turku, Finland. This beautiful trail where I hiked one day on Nagu Island is pretty typical of the forests in that area of Finland — a lot of pine and birch, wild berries, and — what? Leaves and needles on the ground? No squadrons of Finns with rakes, clearing away the debris? How could I miss that?
The other thing I don’t remember seeing in Finland is power lines. Here, for example, is the market square in Turku, on market day.
Lots of flowers, lots of people even as market was just opening. Turku is the old capital, a university town, and the 6th largest city in Finland. Dark in the winter — it’s not that far from the Arctic Circle — surely they must need electricity? But where are the power lines? I can’t see any, can you?
It turns out that Finland has been busily burying their power cables. Finland replaces overhead power lines with underground cables.
They are motivated primarily by danger to the lines from ice in winter, not by fire danger. But of course Finland, with 75% of its land area in forest, also is at risk from forest fires, and more so with climate change.
Perhaps PG&E, and the Marmalade-colored Menace, could find some truly helpful take-home messages in Finland’s approach. Bury power lines, not people!
EDITED TO ADD: Hey, Rec List? Wow! Thank you for this recognition of beautiful Finland, their beautiful forests, and their general sanity! And thanks for thoughtful comments; a lot to think about, but now is a good time to do some of that thinking.