legal aspects of grilling in the wilderness

[faronel]

Hey,

Where I am from and when it is a lovely weather outside, people often go to some unpopulated but comfy areas for grilling (e.g. at a shore of a lake in a forest). There, the law allows to do it, as long as safety measures are taken and no harmful trash is left behind. My girlfriend and I are thinking to maybe doing the same thing here in Finland but I wanted to check it first if this is ok according Finnish law.

To specify our scenario: we want to grill shashlik http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shashlik on a one-time mangal http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mangal_%28barbecue%29 - hence, no bonfire is made, maybe some bigger stones placed on the ground and the mangal on top of those. Afterwards, the intention is to take all the garbage with us and throw away into the bin. Is it allowable or you have to use a designated area where there a built mangal already?

[Oho]

My girlfriend and I are thinking to maybe doing the same thing here in Finland but I wanted to check it first if this is ok according Finnish law.

No, open fire always requires land owners permit. That said national parks such as Nuuksio quite close to Helsinki for example tend to have designated campsites marked on a map where building a fire is permitted, firewood is often provided at site, and at least some locations it also is permitted to pitch a tent for overnight stay, but I guess you should check with park rules to clarify that.

http://www.metsa.fi/sivustot/metsa/en/Sivut/Home.aspx
http://www.outdoors.fi/destinations/nat ... fault.aspx

[Sami-Is-Boss]

There should be a law that you can grill shashlyk anywhere at any time. Shashlyk

[Upphew]

There should be a law that you can grill shashlyk anywhere at any time. Shashlyk

Push it through and I'll come to your bedroom after boozing night to grill!

[rinso]

There is "every mens right" in Finland. (http://www.ymparisto.fi/download.asp?contentid=25603)
And using open fire is indeed forbidden.
Land owners can go berserk if they discover you put their forest at risk.

[Sami-Is-Boss]

There should be a law that you can grill shashlyk anywhere at any time. Shashlyk

Push it through and I'll come to your bedroom after boozing night to grill!

Be my guest mate!

[Karhunkoski]

Land owners can go berserk if they discover you put their forest at risk.

+1

And in some parts of Finland there isn't a policeman behind every tree to protect you from the mad landowner...

OP - If you want to make an open fire, either do it on you own land or make it in a designated place within, e.g., a national park.

Most importantly, enjoy the great outdoors

[CH]

A grill is not "open fire", so the rules of open fire do not apply. But a single-use-grill does count as open fire, as it can more easily be turned over, so you need the permission from the land owner to use them (for instance Helsinki says AFAIK "no" in its parks). This means also that you cannot use single-use barbeque grills when there is a warning for forest fires. Reference (sorry, only in Finnish): http://www.pelastustoimi.fi/turvatietoa ... ajoitukset

But... there are for instance plenty of proper small "travel sized" grills, and those you can use. And in addition to the national parks cities may have designated barbeque places in some of the parks and recreational areas.

[faronel]

Cheers, lads. The provided explanations sure made the details clear.

[Oho]

A grill is not "open fire", so the rules of open fire do not apply.

I'd want to disagree with that, in light of the following:

"kevytrakenteisten, suoraan maapohjalle asetettavien ja helposti tuulessa kaatuvien grillien ja vastaavien muiden tulisijojen käyttö katsotaan pelastuslaissa avotulen teoksi"

which definition for open fire covers most if not all light weight charcoal grills one might take along.