Ahh but replacing old growth forest with burnt out scrub land is not what we necessarily want. Old trees dying and falling naturally creates openings in the canopy to permit new growth without resetting the forest to a grassland like a forest fire would do.
A prescribed burn should burn out annual plant growth and leaf litter not perennial plant trunks.
I'm talking about established prairie ecosystems. The plants there depend on saplings to be killed by fires before they become full grown trees, while they can recover from the fires quicker.
