In 1997-1998 over 50,000 km2 of East Kalimantan burned, affecting some 23,000 km2 of natural forest concessions. This is nearly one-quarter (24%) of the area of all natural forest concessions in the province (Hoffmann et al. 1999). The biomass of the trees living at the time of the burn was little reduced by the fire, which tended to be restricted to the litter and understory, and although many trees died, most stems remained standing. These dead stems in the burned forest represent a significant timber resource. A government regulation was issued (Directorate of Forest Utilization 1999) indicating that in concessions where fires had occurred, ‘salvage felling”— harvesting of the remnant commercial dead timber by conventional methods—should precede any continuation of regular harvesting operations in unburned forest areas. The reason for this regulation was that the dead stems could still provide valuable timber if removed before serious deterioration occurred (Ulbricht et al. 1999). It was apparently assumed that such salvage activities would have little additional effect on the already degraded forest. There are good reasons, however, to be concerned about the ecological effects of salvage felling after fire. Forest areas can recover after fire, but they remain in a very sensitive state in which additional disturbances, such as salvage felling, will cause significantly increased levels of forest deterioration and loss. The results from our 2-year study on post-fire vegetation dynamics in the unlogged dipterocarp rainforest of Sungai Wain near Balikpapan East Kalimantan, (lat 1.160S, long 1 16.540E; elevation 40-140 m above sea level; average yearly rainfall 2790 m) (Vose et al. 1992), compel us to warn against the implications of salvage felling. We intend to publish a more detailed account of our study, but the urgency of the situation makes it important that we disseminate our main conclusions as soon as possible. © 2001 Society for Conservation Biology.