The National Park Service (NPS) first implemented a fire effects monitoring program in the Pacific West Region in 1989 to document baseline vegetation information, to detect trends in vegetation populations, to ensure that resource management objectives are met, and to aid in refining parks' fire management programs. The Northern Great Plains (NGP) program was established in 1996 and has since grown to a network of more than 195 monitoring plots in 10 NPS units. These plots are established in forest stands, shrublands, and grasslands. The majority of the monitoring protocols follow those set in the NPS Fire Monitoring Handbook (2003), although we have begun to increasingly use alternative protocols to answer park-specific questions. The NPS standard monitoring protocols include measuring understory vegetation cover, density of trees and shrubs, diameter at breast height (DBH) of trees, and surface fuel loading. Alternative protocols are used to measure the same set of variables, but on modified plots and transects. Long-term photo monitoring points have also been used when appropriate to capture changes on the landscape.