Prairie dogs can be removed from golf course

Two environmental groups say they plan to appeal to the 10th Circuit a federal court ruling this week that allows Utah prairie dogs to be trapped and removed from a Cedar City golf course and tribal lands belonging to the Paiutes.

The animals, which are listed as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act, have been the subject of a relocation program because of damage caused by their burrows and health risks to people because the animals can carry the plague.

Under a habitat-conservation plan, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service allowed the animals to be trapped and then moved to a 303-acre area known as Wild Pea Hollow.

WildEarth Guardians and the Utah Environmental Congress sued in 2007 to stop the practice, which they assert resulted in a less than 10 percent survival rate among the animals, which number 12,000 in the state.

On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Clark Waddoups dismissed the lawsuit, upholding the government's defense of the conservation plan and rejecting claims that it was arbitrary and capricious.

But Lauren McCain of WildEarth Guardians said the court's decision allows the Fish and Wildlife Service to "continuing sacrificing one of the few places where Utah prairie dogs are actually hanging on."

"Though it seems practical on the surface, the plan will be sentencing hundreds of imperiled prairie dogs to death," she said.

The groups contend that the relocation land is marginal or unsuitable for prairie-dog habitation.

Government officials have countered that even after trapping, the population of the animals continued to flourish at the 503-acre golf course and 48 acres of adjacent Paiute land.

E-MAIL: amyjoi@desnews.com