OBSERVER & ECCENTRIC (Livonia, Michigan) 16 August 07 Snakes have the law on their side (Jonathan Schechter)
Signs in natural areas are low on my like list. Leash your dog. No fires. Don't litter. Much of the information is common sense, but signs are needed to enforce laws.
Some signs, however, are refreshing, especially when they provide nature interpretation and remind the park owners - that's you - that parks are not pacified playgrounds free of wild things and functioning aspects of nature's way. Many national parks are working on signage to educate the public on black bears, a potentially dangerous creature when they are habituated to our bad behavior. And cougar advisory signs can be found at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore in Michigan. Some local parks are telling the tale of the eastern coyote, steps in the right direction.
Seven Lakes State Park, near Holly, deserves congratulations for its bold action in strategically placing a unique wildlife crossing sign. This sign stops you dead in your tracks for a second look, and that's what it's meant to do: inform, educate and protect a resource.
Seven Lakes is a wildland gem operated by the Michigan DNR. Enter the park and just a ways down the road you can't miss a prominent standard yellow highway sign. This one, in bold letters, proclaims: "CAUTION, SNAKE CROSSING, PROTECTED SPECIES". A detailed rattlesnake picture appears on the sign along with the words, "Eastern Massasauga Rattlesnake, Venomous-Protected Species."
It's my guess that many county residents have no idea massasauga rattlesnakes, Michigan's only venomous snake, true pit vipers, live in Oakland County. Many parks under management of the Huron-Clinton Metropolitan Authority and Oakland County Parks have placed small rattlesnake signs near trails and their naturalists pass the word. Well and good.
I chatted with DNR biologist Julie Oakes, who confirmed that the rattlesnake signs at Seven Lakes are unique. In her words, "We stole the idea from Sterling State Park that put up fox snake crossing signs." Good for her! And it will hopefully be good for our elusive, cryptically colored, shy little swamp rattler that sometimes suns on pavement. The signs went up shortly after an off-leash dog - a violation of law - was bitten by a rattler. The dog survived, but the owner was not happy that he did not know rattlers were in the park.
Fact of the matter, many natural areas in Oakland County have rattlesnakes. Some of my favorite "rattlesnakes parks" are Indian Springs, Kensington and Stony Creek metro parks, Independence and Orion Oaks county parks and the Bald Mountain State Recreation Area, along with many small protected areas and sanctuaries in northern Oakland County. Rattlesnakes also live in some new subdivisions that are adjacent to wetlands. The Paint Creek Trail, Polly Ann Trail, the Clinton River Tail and sections of the old tracks just west of the West Bloomfield Trail Network all have habitat that could very well support rattlers.
Every now and then, a massasauga bites a human. Humans survive. The snake usually does not. And they are not ankle bites. The great majority of the highly infrequent bites are direct result of harassment and stupidity and result in intoxicated adult males being bitten on their dominant hands seconds after the famous two-word phrase, "Watch this!"
In August, female massasaugas give birth to their live young in upland sites, then slowly slither peacefully back across roads to their wetlands, awaiting their season of hibernation, often in moist crayfish burrows. Give the snakes a break. It's the law.
Snakes have the law on their side