I hate to tell you this, Jseime, but ground squirrels are not the same thing as gophers. While both are rodents, they are in different families, Geomyidae for gophers and Sciuridae for squirrels. Each has a very different life style. Gophers usually remain underground most of the time and harvest plants from below. Ground squirrels are surface feeders.
Prairie dogs are also in the squirrel family.