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Brush management techniques are widely applied on rangelands for multiple objectives; two common objectives are to increase forage production for livestock and to maintain a healthy wildlife habitat. Our objectives were to determine the effects of previous disturbances and the establishment of exotic grasses on native herbaceous vegetation and small mammal abundance and species richness on a desert scrubland community. The study was conducted in the southern end of the Sonoran Desert in the state of Sonora, Mexico. Three pairs of 2 ha were selected for sampling: in each pair of sites, one was previously cleared by mechanical means and seeded with buffelgrass 25 years before and the other did not have previous mechanical disturbance (control). For vegetation sampling, response variables included canopy cover of woody plants, canopy cover of herbaceous plants and native species richness; for small mammals, Sherman traps were used to evaluate abundance and species richness. There was a multivariate main effect among treatments for the dependent variables total canopy cover of herbaceous plants, litter, and bare ground. Variables that contributed to the significant overall effect included litter and total herbaceous cover. The indicators of mechanical brush management practices on the southern end of the Sonoran desert reflect an increase in herbaceous vegetation, reducing brush species composition.