Soil disturbances by the western pocket gopher, Thomomys mazama, are conspicuous features at Bunchgrass Ridge and in meadows throughout the Cascades. Through their tunneling and mounding activities, gophers

• initiate succession by removing or burying plants
• reduce the dominance of grasses and increase the diversity of less competitive forbs (and the animals and insects that depend on them)
• increase the heterogeneity of species composition on mounds and at larger spatial scales within meadows
• provide sites for establishment of disturbance-dependent species which would otherwise be absent.

Most studies of the relationships between gopher disturbance and plant community structure have been conducted in low-elevation prairies or grasslands of central and eastern North America. Studies from higher elevation mountain ecosystems, such as Bunchgrass Ridge, are rare.