I'm Mike, I got my PhD from Oregon State in 2007, postdoc at K-State for a year then off to work for the Bureau of Land Management as an ecologist. Have had more garter snakes pass through my fingers than I like to remember. I've caught just about every kind of garter snake there is to be caught in every state Canadian province west of the Mississippi (except Texas -- haven't done Texas yet) and have cruised the East fairly intensively too. Big dream is to get south of the border & sample the wonderful Thamnophis diversity. Thanks for a great site,

Mike