The interior of Alaska is a vast area characterized by cold soils which are often underlain by permafrost; a continental climate with great extremes in temperature; and the taiga, a pattern of boreal forest and tundra which is largely the result of past wildfires (Viereck, 1973; 1975). There is probably no force which influences the mosaic of taiga vegetation more than fire. Nearly one million acres of taiga burn each year, and almost all of interior Alaska has burned in the last 250 years (Barney, 1971b). Barney (1971a) estimated that 25 percent of the interior has burned more than once. Prior to the initiation of fire control in 1940, the statewide average annual burned area ranged from 608,000 to 1.1 million hectares (ha) (Barney, 1971) Fire control between 1940 and 1969 reduced this to about 405,000 ha (Barney, 1971a), between 1970 and 1978 the average has been only 243,000 ha burned yearly, ranging from 1,389 ha in 1964 to more than 2 million ha in 1959 (Hardy and Franks, 1963; Barney 1969; BLM 1978). IN 1977, the third largest fire year (acreage) in history, 930,000 ha burned. Of the 152,154 ha that were burned in Anchorage District, 145,800 ha were attributed to the Bear Creek Fire (BLM, 1977). Formal studies of the plant regeneration and plant community succession following fire in interior Alaska were first published by Lutz in 1956. His studies along with those by Foote (1976), Viereck et.al. (1979), and Zasada et.al. (1979) and with the excellent literature reviews by Viereck (1975) and Viereck and Schandelmeir (1980), provided the base on which these studies could be built. By the 1970's, governement agenies with land management responsibiliities in Alaska urgently needed information about the effects of fire. When a very large wildfire swept through Interior Alaska in 1977, it was closely monitored by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). The Bear Creek Fire, which occurred in the central part of the state near the town of McGrath, covered many terrain and vegetation types. It burned 139,620 hectares with a wide range of intensities and severities. During the course of this fire, BLM recognized the excellent opportunity to learn more about succession processes after natural wildfire. Studies began almost immediately. This paper reports the results of the first three years' observations of the vegetative regeneration on the Bear Creek burn. For the purpose of this paper, the terms 'burn' and 'fire' are defined as follows: Burn - the physical remnants after a fire, e.g., charred or scorched organic matter. Fire - the active principle of burning, characterized by heat and light combustion. The purpose of this study is to quantitatively describe and analyze plant community succession following fire in relation to:1. Soils, weather and topography.2. Preburn forest, scrub, and herbaceous communities.3. Fire severity ( the degree to which the burned soil and plant community displaced).4. Fire intensensity (the number of heat released by the fire ).5. Fire frequency.