'Fire Spread in a Black Spruce Stand.-The Canadian Forest Fire weather Index Tables consist of a family of relative fire danger indices that are used throughout Canada to assist in general fire control planning and operations. However, the fire manager must predict real fire behavior if he is to do a better job of prescribed burning in slash and in fire-fighting in different fuel types. Such absolute indices of fire behavior are gradually becoming available for several major fuel types (Muraro, 1971; Quintilio, 1972; Van Wagner, 1973) but there is presently no published information on fire growth and spread in black spruce, potentially an extremely flammable forest type found throughout the boreal forest region. The present study was designed to determine fire behavior in a black spruce [Picea mariana] stand during the critical incipient phase of fire growth. Also, an extensive field reconnaissance was carried out to assess the succcssional trends of vegetation on old burns in this forest type. A O.4-hectare plot, located in north-central Alberta, was burned on July 18, 1972 at high fire danger. The characteristics of the 50-year-old stand were: number of trees per hectare-597; diameter-5.6 cm; average tree height-4.4 m; average crown width-1.2 m. Thc 45-cm active layer of the forest floor above permafrost comprised primarily peat moss, with a surface laycr of Cladonia and Sphagnum species. Aside from an abundance of Labrador-tea [Ledum groenlandicum], there was little understory vegetation. Weights and moisture contents of the important fuels are given in table 1. Six rainfree days preceded the burn. Burning conditions at the time of the fire were: air temperature - 22.8C; relative humidity-38%; wind speed- 19.3 km/hr; Fine Fuel Moisture Code (FFMC)-90; Duff Moisture Code (DMC)-29; Drought Code (DC)-230; Initial Spread Index (151)-11; Adjusted Duff Moisture Code (ADMC)-43; Fire Weather Index (FW1)-23.'