A request for an injunction against a plan to trap prairie dogs at the Cedar Ridge public golf course was denied in the U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals this week.

That means critters living on the golf course could face extermination, spurring renewed concern from wildlife conservation organizations, which earlier this year filed a lawsuit in an attempt to save the prairie dogs.

Three Western wildlife conservation organizations and naturalist-author Terry Tempest Williams sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to stop relocating Utah prairie dogs, one of the first mammals ever listed as an endangered species.

Under a federal plan, prairie dog trapping at the Cedar Ridge public golf course resumed July 1. At the end of August, course employees would be allowed to set spring-loaded traps to kill the animals and fill their burrows.

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.

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.

The New Mexico-based Wild Earth Guardians, along with the Utah Environmental Congress, the Center for Native Ecosystems and Williams sought the injunction to halt the trapping.

Even if federal biologists take the animals to a relocation area, they are likely to die in their new surroundings, said Nicole Rosmarino, senior biologist with Wild Earth Guardians.

According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, about 68 percent of Utah prairie dogs live on private or nonfederal land in southwestern Utah.