Immediate Effect of Fire
shallow roots. Trees are often killed even by low-intensity surface
fires. Crowning is common in black spruce stands because low-growing,
lichen-draped branches are easily ignited by ground fires. Crown fires
typically result in extensive mortality.
In interior Alaska, most fires in black spruce stands are a combination
of ground and crown fires that usually kill all black spruce .
Hanson  found that all black spruce trees were killed following a
low-intensity surface burn (the top 2 to 4 inches [5-10 cm] of the 6 to
14 inch [15-35 cm] organic mat was consumed) in an open black
spruce-tamarack community in interior Alaska. This site contained 81 to
162 trees per acre (200-400/ha) that ranged from 40 to 178 years old and
1.5 to 3 inches (4-7 cm) in diameter.
- 25. Foote, M. Joan. 1983. Classification, description, and dynamics of plant communities after fire in the taiga of interior Alaska. Res. Pap. PNW-307. Portland, OR: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Forest and Range Experiment Station. 108 p. 
- 32. Hanson, William A. 1979. Preliminary results of the Bear Creek fire effects studies. Proposed open file report. Anchorage, AK: U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management, Anchorage District Office. 83 p. 
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