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Fire is extensively studied in the Southern Great Plains, but few studies focus in the Northern Great Plains. The ability to use fire as a management tool could provide more cost-effective ways to control problematic herbaceous species like crested wheatgrass (Agropyron cristatum) and increase grazing distribution and forage palatability. Frequency, density, phytomass, and basal cover were collected on 142 plots in 2008 using two perpendicular 150-m transects in the Grand River National Grasslands, Perkins County, South Dakota, USA. On April 4, 2013, a wildfire spread over several pastures, including 25 of the plots previously monitored in 2008. The same methods were replicated to compare herbage production, species composition, and basal cover on sandy and shallow sandy ecological sites. Three burned and non-burned sites were chosen on native dominated rangelands and crested wheatgrass pasturelands on sandy sites for a total of 12 plots. Native dominated sites were chosen on shallow sandy sites, three burned and non-burned. Species composition, herbage production, and basal cover were compared between years and treatments (burned/non-burned) for each ecological site using perMANOVA, NMS and Student's t-test. Sandy native and sandy crested sites were different (p?0.05) by year and treatment for species composition. However, no interaction [year x treatment] occurred. There were no effects (p?0.05) on shallow sandy sites. Fire reduced (p?0.05) basal litter and increased (p?0.05) bare ground in 2013, but only burned crested sites had more (p?0.05) bare ground in 2014. NMS scores indicated site variability was responsible for changes seen in species composition and not attributed to fire treatments. Changes in plant composition were not apparent one year after burning. The Northern Great Plains has a long evolutionary history of fire, and plants are well adapted to fire disturbance.