Lutz (1960) recognizes that fire properly 

 used can, even in boreal forests, become a valu- 

 able silvicultural tool. He does not believe that 

 the present forester or wildlife manager has suf- 

 ficient knowledge ". . . to enable him to use 

 prescribed burning on anything more than a 

 purely experimental basis. There is a great oppor- 

 tunity and need for research on this problem" 

 (p. 460). He also proposes investigating the use 

 of fire to manipulate the position of the perma- 

 frost table for silvicultural benefit. 



Ecological research performed within boreal 

 forests in Sweden indicates results similar to 

 those in Interior Alaska. Uggla (1958a), in com- 

 paring the effects of controlled fires and wildfire, 

 states that controlled burns on slightly moist 

 ground is the most efficient method of activating 

 humus materials for natural seedbed prepara- 

 tion. He further states, "A feeble forest fire, on 

 not too dry raw humus ground, can be compared 



with a controlled burning, but on poor, dry soils, 

 uncontrolled forest fires can have devastating 

 effects. . . . On such soils the activating effects 

 of the fire soon disappear. Since also the addi- 

 tion of litter will be very inconsiderable for a 

 long time, degeneration of the forest soil often 

 results" (p. 5). 



Prescribed burning techniques for safe and 

 effective land clearing in the Fairbanks area 

 were explored by Johnson (1958, 1959) and 

 Gettinger and Johnson (1959); they found it 

 quite feasible to obtain a good clear burn with- 

 out endangering the surrounding woods, but 

 only if certain sound practices were pursued. 



As yet untapped are means for fully using 

 fire as an effective tool in furthering forest 

 management objectives. Research in fire and 

 silviculture should aid in determining when and 

 how fire should be used and when it should not 

 be used. 



95 



