The forefeet are large with powerful digging claws, while the hindfeet are stout, with flat soles.

[4] Townsend's pocket gopher is found in disjunct populations across southern Idaho, northern Nevada, southeastern Oregon, and northeastern California.

[1] They inhabit land with deep, moist soils close to rivers and lakes, occasionally as high as 1,980 m (6,500 ft), but more usually in lower valley bottoms.

Their expansion into neighboring areas may be limited by absence of saltgrass, or by competition with Botta's pocket gopher.

Common predators include barn owls,[5] and the gopher is also considered to be the primary host of the chewing louse Geomydoecus idahoensis.