UNDERSTORY PRESCRIBED BURNING IN RED PINE AND WHITE-PINE

The alarming loss of forested areas containing red pine (Pinus resinos a Ait.) and eastern white pine (Pinus strobus L.) in eastern Canada is a situation that must be addressed promptly by changing management ap proaches. Since the ecological role of fire in the regeneration and pe rpetuation of these pines is well known, it makes sense to use fire to maintain pine ecosystems through forest management that uses an under story prescribed burn program. Fears of fire escape and a poor knowled ge of applying fire correctly to these ecosystems are the result of po or training in the use of prescribed fire, which normally concentrates solely on post-harvest slash sites; this has prevented extensive use of understory prescribed burning in the past. However, research in Can ada, principally using the Canadian Forest Fire Behavior Prediction (F BP) System coupled with the Canadian Forest Fire Weather Index (FWI) S ystem, allows forest managers to develop burning prescriptions that ar e safe and economical while meeting objectives for seedbed preparation , natural seeding and control of competing vegetation.