In 1980, Washington State’s Mount St Helens erupted…causing an ecological nightmare as the volcano spewed lava, ash, and debris over the surrounding landscape that was followed by mudflows and pyroclastic flows, leaving the vegetation covered in mud and detritus as far as 27 kilometers from the volcano. …But one team of scientists had an unconventional idea to help jumpstart the process: send a few gophers on a one-day mission to the mountain. “Gophers are known as ‘hole diggers’,” says a 2024 paper assessing the long-term effects of the rodents at Mount St Helens, adding, “a single gopher can move 227 kg [500 pounds] of soil per month”. Digging is a useful quality in restoring an area devastated by volcanic eruption. Plant life was struggling to return… But while the top layers of soil were destroyed by the eruption and lava flows, the soil underneath could still have been rich in bacteria and fungi.