Can the wild population recover?

[CRIKEY!]

Is there something I can do about the casualties of so called progress? This is why I ask, I had the privileged of inheriting a piece of land from my grandparents and I cleared it and built a house 5 years ago.

Now to give you some back round on the property, as a kid I used to catch handfuls of sertalis when I would visit my grandparents. It was awesome because I lived in the city and I always was drawn to nature and the country and my grandparents lived in the woods. Now to go back even further, my dad used to catch tons of sertalis back in the 50’s when he was a kid. The area was a snake country. I absolutely loved it.

My grandparents lived up on the hill and the lower property was all woods. My grandfather refused to sell until the day he past away. Thankfully for me and unfortunate for the sertalis residents. But the hill behind my house is granite ledge, where they have always thrived. As you can see in the pics, there are old broken down concrete stairs that used to lead to my grandparents house. I think they might brumate under them and also in the rock walls all around there.

The only thing is, after 3 years of living here, I have only caught one large female (?). She lives under a blue tarp next to my shed. This is the second season I’ve seen her. I pick her up all the time. Especially when I’m cutting the grass. And after 3 years, I have never come across babies.

Now on top of that, my dad had to sell my grandparents house to a developer. Currently there is an excavator digging up the whole property. I hope the poor snakes had a chance to get down the hill onto my property. I can't help but think of all the snake carnage on construction sites. :(

So that’s my long winded story. Is there something I can do to help repopulate this devastated colony? I was thinking of transplanting other local sertalis from a nearby pond. Would that be healthy or detrimental? Or maybe it will balance on it's own in a few years. I hope. What do you think?

Thanks!

http://img190.imageshack.us/img190/2461/003smallg.jpg (http://img190.imageshack.us/i/003smallg.jpg/)
Grandparent's old house on the hill.

http://img136.imageshack.us/img136/5918/001smallic.jpg (http://img136.imageshack.us/i/001smallic.jpg/)
Grandparent's old yard being excavated.

http://img203.imageshack.us/img203/3/005small.jpg (http://img203.imageshack.us/i/005small.jpg/)
Stairs connecting my yard to the upper property.

http://img136.imageshack.us/img136/4354/006small.jpg (http://img136.imageshack.us/i/006small.jpg/)
Side view of stairs.

http://img136.imageshack.us/img136/2444/004small.jpg (http://img136.imageshack.us/i/004small.jpg/)
My yard down below. With a resident sertalis living under the blue tarp.

[drache]

one would hope that the rumble of the machinery drove them away before anyone got hurt
it's not a good idea to "repopulate" the area, as you don't know whether the area is still fit for their survival needs; if it is, they're sure to be hiding out somewhere, and won't necessarily benefit from the competition
and about the casualties of progress . . . ?
you can drive less, support sane agriculture and development, that sort of thing - be easy on the earth yourself

[CRIKEY!]

one would hope that the rumble of the machinery drove them away before anyone got hurt
it's not a good idea to "repopulate" the area, as you don't know whether the area is still fit for their survival needs; if it is, they're sure to be hiding out somewhere, and won't necessarily benefit from the competition
and about the casualties of progress . . . ?
you can drive less, support sane agriculture and development, that sort of thing - be easy on the earth yourself
Yeah...I hope there just hiding out. That's a good point about not introducing new ones because of their needs.

[CRIKEY!]

Ooooops...In honor of the snake...I meant T. s. sirtalis with an i not an e. :o

[mustang]

if a home building company is buying land around you to start selling as lots id try to catch/remove as many of the snakes as possable and relocate em beceause many people will kill a snake (big or small) as soon as they see one! so not sure about adding more it depends on scenario

[Stefan-A]

You can relocate the ones that are in immediate danger (but not very far from where they are caught), but it seems to me that the damage is practically irreversible. Habitat degradation can only be remedied by habitat restoration.

[CRIKEY!]

if a home building company is buying land around you to start selling as lots id try to catch/remove as many of the snakes as possable and relocate em beceause many people will kill a snake (big or small) as soon as they see one! so not sure about adding more it depends on scenario
Thankfully there is no more building going around me, except for my grandfather's old house. I wish I could have relocated some of them, but I was sick for most of the summer. But I'm on the mend now. I'll ask the contractor who is doing the work up there if he has come across any snakes.


You can relocate the ones that are in immediate danger (but not very far from where they are caught), but it seems to me that the damage is practically irreversible. Habitat degradation can only be remedied by habitat restoration.
I forgot to say that there is a strip of woods that goes down the side of both our properties. In New England there are official streets that are called "paper streets". They look like a normal street on a map, but in actuality, you can not access it with a vehicle. So I have big trees on the side of my house that no one can cut down. It's all granite ledge underneath. I hope the garters hid in that section. I'll try to take a picture of it.