"Gopher wire" can be effective for preventing gopher and mole activity/burrowing in lawns. There is wire mesh that is sold as "gopher wire" - but hardware cloth and even chicken wire have been used in similar fashion. The typical application sequence is to lay the wire on the surface a graded, firmed, bare soil - stapling it down with sod/landscape staples. Then sod is planted over the top of the gopher wire/fencing.

I have not seen it used for the prevention of prairie dogs in lawns. Prairie dogs are less common problems in lawns - and can be more easily relocated if they do happen to get "trapped" in urban lawn areas when construction of houses and other building, roads, parking lots forces them to move. A relatively simple method of preventing/excluding prairie dogs involves the installation of short (couple of feet tall) temporary fencing that obstructs the long-range view of prairie dogs when they are aboveground. Inability to see distances is "uncomfortable" for prairie dogs, so they will move to areas where their view is less obstructed. Most lawn have some sort of fencing or other structures which create site-line conditions that prairie dogs find uncomfortable - so they are uncommon lawn problems. Gophers, on the other hand, don't care about site lines and can become severe problems in lawns and gardens. The same materials (gopher wire, landscape cloth, etc) can be used to line raised beds and to surround newly planted trees, shrubs, and perennial flowers.

While I would never guarantee that gopher wire would work to prevent prairie dog burrowing in lawns, I can't think of a reason why it would not - except that prairie dogs are larger and might be able to push the gopher wire up from beneath and break through it.

Thanks,

Tony