STAR-GAZETTE (Elmira, New York) 23 July 05 Rattlers alarm Harris Hill crowds - But experts say snakes always have shared recreation area with visitors. (George Osgood)
If you go to Harris Hill Park, watch your step.
And your kids.
Timber rattlesnakes have taken a liking to the park in recent weeks. There's no reason to panic or to stop using the park. But a little extra dose of caution couldn't hurt.
"My goal is to educate the public, and especially parents, that these are not aggressive snakes," said Kristin Card, emergency planner and safety coordinator for Chemung County. "They won't chase people. They won't attack people.
"But if they're provoked, if kids are poking at them with sticks or throwing rocks at them or chasing them or trying to pick them up, they will bite," she said.
The results are potentially fatal. But that's extremely unlikely. The state Department of Environmental Conservation reports there have been no human deaths from rattlesnake bites in New York for several decades.
Still, they can ruin your day.
"In past years, there have been sightings of them at the park," Card said. "This year, we have had more sightings than normal. It has peaked just within the past couple of weeks. We're getting three and four reports a week.
"Maybe this is due to the advent of everyone having a cell phone," she said. "And they are using their cell phone and calling our comm center and reporting there's a rattlesnake and calling for nuisance wildlife control officers - to respond and remove the snake from the area."
No one knows for sure where the rattlers are coming from. Chemung County's only DEC-licensed rattlesnake "salvage and removal" folks, Dr. Arthur Smith Jr. and Bob Corneau, live nearby and have worked extensively with timber rattlers, Card said.
But Smith said the appearance of the snakes in the park is neither alarming nor out of the ordinary.
"There's nothing new about it," Smith said. "They have been all over the hills up here for a million years. I don't see that it's unusual."
Card wants to know if the snakes are transients, if they're hunting for food, or and they will find a den in the park.
"From what they say, in the summer rattlesnakes will go 2 or 3 miles away from their den, traveling around looking for food," Card said. "Maybe that's what these are doing. Their dens are probably at Frenchman's Bluff and Steege Hill."
Card advises park users to avoid tall grass, brush and stone piles and to give any snakes a wide berth. And to make sure children avoid all snakes.
"A lot of times, what we see is people either dropping their kids off at the park and then leaving, or people having a picnic or a party and letting the kids go to the pool or the playground by themselves so they aren't being closely monitored.
"And children being children, if they see a snake, they want to look at it," she said. "They want to chase it. They want to pick it up. That's the way kids are. And that's how they can get bitten."
So keep using the park, but be aware and be careful, she said. In the meantime, park staffers are getting extra mowing and weed-whacking duty.
"I'm not telling people to avoid the park," Card said. "Certainly it's a beautiful park and we want people to enjoy it. We just want people to use caution and watch where they are walking.
"And if they are taking children there, they should caution them not to touch or approach any snakes they see."
Rattlers alarm Harris Hill crowds