@b92dcc07 I always enjoy Cory's writing, but I don't think the way he's written about black spruce is entirely accurate.

I'm a restoration ecologist with no first hand experience in this particular ecosystem, but here's a bit of what I've read matched with experience in other forest restoration projects.

"Black spruce dominates most spruce-fir ecosystems of boreal North America."

Basically, it's exactly what you should be planting in these areas after logging. 

https://www.fs.usda.gov/database/feis/plants/tree/picmar/all.html

https://cdn.masto.host/ecoevosocial/media_attachments/files/111/079/159/378/096/124/original/40b8c05a3be5bc6e.jpg 

 @b92dcc07 Even spacing for landscape scale planting projects is standard practice. I'm not sure if it's a viable argument that even spacing makes fires worse. Perhaps if it means you have a higher fuel load/biomass over a given area, but that's not clear in the article and isn't shown in anything I have read so far. 

 @b92dcc07 This article is very informative.

Black spruce dominated ecosystems are under threat. Not from black spruce, but from hotter, dryer conditions which mean that black spruce is being out-competed by other species such as white spruce, aspen and birch. 

Black spruce has dominated boreal forests for the last five to ten thousands years. The climate is beginning to change that dominance. 
 https://www.woodwellclimate.org/black-spruce-regeneration-failure/