The taiga forest of interior Alaska lies within a broad zone of discontinuous permafrost. Although the gross effects of wildfire on vegetation and wildlife are fairly well known and understood, there is still a lack of knowledge on the effects of fire on interior soils and especially in permafrost soils. Serious erosion problems can occur in fine textured frozen soils with a high ice content. Fireline construction with tractors in silty permafrost soils can lead to gross gully erosion unless proper safeguards are undertaken. In some areas, catline construction has been estimated to have caused more erosion in the past than the actual effects of the fires.