Throughout interior Alaska it is well known among land managers and fire management personnel that recently burned areas of black spruce can serve as a fuel break during most wildland fires. Recently burned black spruce forests are an important tool during wildland firefighting operations because they serve as critical points to control fires in a landscape that sometimes has few other natural barriers to fire. While the ability of regenerating forests to slow or stop fires is well known there is little information as to how long regenerating black spruce forests serve as a reliable fuel breaks. There is also a lack of research that focuses on how the fuel complex of black spruce forest transforms as the forest matures. These transformations are responsible for a shift in fire behavior that advances from smoldering surface fires to high intensity crown fires. Based a combination of field data, direct wildfire measurements, and fire behavior modeling recommendations based on research conducted by Colorado State University, Yale University will determine the age bracket that regenerating black spruce forests can function as a reliable fuel break. Research will also seek to reveal the changes in the fuel complex of a developing stand that cause such a dramatic change in fire behavior.