Smokey, probably the best thing we can do to protect herps from vanishing from areas is to protect their habitat. That is really the only thing that works. It is also something that many land developers do not want to hear. While it may make us feel good to take a bunch of snakes and relocate them to an area that isn't under the threat of development, it really just loads many predators into an area that may not support them. While it is good that you are trying to save those that you can, we need to be careful to not give the idea that it is OK to destroy good habitat as long as we translocate or relocate those critters to somewhere else (where they probably will not thrive). Developers and others who make their living by taking decent habitat and then clearing it with bulldozers need to be held to a higher standard than what is currently done. Preserving habitat that already exists is how we save our herps.



Greg Henry

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