Posted: 9:55 AM- A colony of Utah prairie dogs living on a Cedar City golf course could be wiped out if a federal wildlife agency insists of relocating them to other habitats, conservationists say in a lawsuit.
    Under a plan crafted by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, prairie dog trapping is set to resume at the Cedar Ridge public golf course on July 1. Captured animals would be taken to U.S. Forest Service land.
    But previous relocation experience shows all but a few of the animals would die, said Nicole Rosmarino of New Mexico-based WildEarth Guardians, formerly called Forest Guardians.
    "They should be protected where they are. As it stands, it is little more than an extermination program.
    Forest Guardians, the Utah Environmental Congress, the Center for Native Ecosystems and naturalist-author Terry Tempest Williams on Tuesday filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Salt Lake City seeking a court order to stop the prairie dog management plan.
    The conservationists filed a similar lawsuit in October, but the case is moving too slowly through the court to avert this summer's trapping season, Rosmarino said
    Originally, the federal plan called for lethal trapping to commence at the end of August, when the live-trapping ended. In 2006, the conservation groups objected and the Fish & Wildlife Service eliminated the lethal trapping component of the plan.
    Based on records of past trapping and translocation, more than 90 percent of the prairie dogs trapped on the golf course will die, the lawsuit says.
    Neither of the Denver-based Fish & Wildlife officials familiar with the golf course plan was available for comment Wednesday.
    The conservationists also seek to "uplist" the Utah prairie dog, designated as endangered in 1973 but downgraded to threatened in 1984 at the request of Utah wildlife officials.
    The federal plan calls for moving animals trapped on the golf course to Berry Springs, on Forest Service land north of Highway 12 and Ruby's Inn. An area near Minersville called Wild Pea Hollow would be rehabilitated for future prairie dog colony re-establishment.
    But Rosmarino said the animals are destined for oblivion at either location.
    Despite relocation efforts between 2001 and 2005 that took nearly 600 animals to Berry Springs, just seven adult prairie dogs were counted there in 2007. At Wild Pea Hollow, the 416 prairie dogs counted in 2006 dwindled to seven last year, according to Utah Division of Wildlife counts.
    The removal program came at the request of Cedar City and Paiute tribal officials who say the Utah prairie dogs are in the way of development. The prairie dogs particularly affect the golf course, where last year course employees baited traps with peanut butter and oatmeal to capture 472 dogs on just three course holes.
    Cedar Ridge golf pro John Evans says the animals have stolen thousands of golf balls, which they store in their burrows until it rains, when they push the balls back onto the greens.
    Cedar City manager Ron Chandler said he didn't know whether the animals' antics have led golfers to forgo the course, but they have created a new rule.
    "You don't lose a [stroke] if a prairie dog takes your ball," he said.