Treatment of a nine-hectare desert shrub community with an herbicide (dicamba) resulted in reduction of the live canopy of creosotebush, Larrea tridentata, and an increase in coverage of bush muhly, Muhlenbergia porteri. After treatment, Dipodomys merriami was replaced by Dipodomys ordii as the dominant species. On untreated control areas, D. merriami maintained dominance. These changes are interpreted to result from a release of growth inhibition of M. porteri by creosotebush and habitat structure selection in Dipodomys.