'Modeling is fine as long as you know what you are doing.' General remark made to the author by a retired University of Alberta forestry professor a few years ago. The April 1988 issue of the Journal of Forestry published an article by John J. Garland that I have often handed out at various training courses and workshops to impress upon folks the very sentiment expressed above. While the application does not specifically deal with fuel and/or fire management issues, it somehow seems important nowadays for the messages contained in this article to get wider circulation. So, towards this end, a copy of Garland's 1988 article is reproduced for the benefit of visitors to the FERIC Wildland Fire Operations Research Group website.