Underburning research has progressed from researching fuel loads, comparing burns in treated and untreated stands and investigated fire behaviour in plots underburned 8 years previoursly. The work has progressed to documenting the optimal conditions (FWI) to carry out underburns in pine stands to:
– Reduce surface fuels
– blacken 75+% of the surface
– be completed by a four-person crew in a safe manner
– reduce tree mortality due to stem damage

An FWI range has been determined from 6 underburns carried out in pine stands in the NWT.