Funny you should ask, I've spent half my life in the woods here in Sarasota as a class III Collector, I just typed up a four page letter to Kevin Enge, the lead Biologist working with the FWC on the very subject. The FWC and a group of 5 Biologists just increased the status to a Threatened Species, which I'm OK with. The reason I wrote the guy is because while the FPSN populations will likely increase north of, say Tampa Bay, the populations south of that "current southernmost pocket gopher extent" are fractured into single-gender-heavy groups and those groups are separated by layers of roads and sometimes even counties and surrounded by hungry hog populations which I feel will never subside. The only chance we have here in south Fla of encountering the FPSN in our Parks again is if a breeding program is initiated, and soon. The genetic makeup of the southernmost FPSN is the most "heat tolerant" gene should be the one chosen/harvested for the breeding program, then the FWC should change the law to ALLOW LOCAL Breeders to breed local snakes (Indigos and Pines) for release into all the newly restored Parks, the law already states "no sale, trade or transport over state lines" that doesn't have to change. Believe it or not they factor in the off base idea that the FPSN is over collected, even though request like yours pop up here weekly from folks looking for a person that owns a pair. The part they don't seem to get is that people that breed the FPSN are passionate and would be happy to participate in replenishing the wild populations, even at they're own cost just to be part of it. I think that THEY think snake lovers are all druggies or just scumbags. The existing laws are only protecting them out of existence, at least here in south Fla. Find the link I posted a month ago here on this Forum and give it a read, tell me what you all think, ...All I got from it is, and they admit this in the "Species Review" that they know very little about the species and think restricting us from breeding it is somehow going to help the species?. Even worse is, the only law that IS effectivly enforced is the law that prohibits locals from breeding the Threatened species, all the while they're still evaporating like bubbles in a bathtub, all other laws that are supposed to protect them have 0 effect, like from road mortalities and new urban developments, or ranch worker killings, or NON NATIVE Hog encounters... I could go on for hours...

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