The Daily Bucket is a regular feature of the Backyard Science group, a place where everyone is welcome to note the observations you have made of the natural world around you. Insects, weather, fish, critters, birds and plants: all are worthy additions to the bucket. Ask questions if you have them and someone here may well have an answer.
Gooseville, WI
At first we were startled and then we met shyly, eye-to-eye, on the first sunny day of spring. Fresh out of hibernation and our winter shelters we were both basking in the warmth of the unfamiliar.
Its delicate tongue-flicks were as numerous as my camera clicks. We spent a short moment in the backyard regarding each other until it slipped away towards the wet meadow in search of juicey earthworms. We haven't seen each other since.
In 1997, the Butler's garter snake was placed on the Wisconsin Endangered and Threatened Species List to protect it from habitat loss by the encroachment of real estate development. Its habitat was shrinking and the distinct population was declining and growing more fragmented.
Butler's Garter Snake Thamnophis butleri
(Wisconsin Threatened Species-1997)
(delisted-2013)
Little more than the diameter of a pencil and add a few longer inches to include a handsome tail, the Butler's Garter Snake grows to a slender 15 or 20 inches at most.
I can't tell a Butler's from a Common or Eastern Plains Garter snake without counting scale rows and lateral stripes or black spots between the stripes and looking for the smaller head and neck. I had to ask a local Naturalist for ID confirmation.
Its DNA story tells the difference of this obscure offshoot of an Ice Age species. This is pretty cool stuff.
Butler's wake from group hibernation in spring and mate in pheromoned tangles before they leave for summer feeding areas. They're ovoviviparous, which means the eggs are fertilized within the female's body and hatch within her. She'll give birth to 4-20 live babes in mid to late summer and leave them on their own to figure it out.
They specifically inhabit moist, grassy, open meadows with nearby wet prairies, marshes and grasslands.
Their habitat range is only found in small sections of northeastern Indiana (Endangered Species), northwestern Ohio, the eastern portion of the Lower Peninsula of Michigan and the adjacent extreme southern tip of Ontario (Endangered Species), Canada.
In Wisconsin, its only home is smack in the middle of the heaviest developed and developing area of the state; the city of Milwaukee and the wealthy counties surrounding it. After the Endangered listing, it didn't take long before the builders were complaining loudly that the small snake was a serious economic impediment.
In 2006, the state was under pressure from the Metropolitan Builders Association of Milwaukee and some legislators to remove the snake from the list or alter how the species was assessed. The presence of the snake on property slated for development was holding up construction for months or years in some cases due to DNR reviews.
But the removal of the snake from the list never made it past a Democratic controlled Legislature.
More here.
May, 2013
A small snake that's thwarted construction projects in southeastern Wisconsin has been removed from a list of protected species by the Department of Natural Resources.
The Butler's garter snake, a cousin of the common garter snake, was one of seven animal species that lost its protected status when the Natural Resources Board voted, 7-0, on Wednesday to approve a revision of the state's endangered and threatened species list.
With its protected status, the discovery of snakes slowed or stopped some building projects.
Beginning with the administration of Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle, the DNR tried to balance the ecological health of the snake with economic realities by establishing a three-tiered system. In only one tier — that with the most critical habitat — were developers required to protect snakes by changing construction plans and building buffers and fences.
The Butler's issue drew more political controversy after GOP Gov. Scott Walker took office and named Cathy Stepp to head the DNR and continued to pursue those changes.
DNR Secretary Cathy Stepp, who formerly owned a construction business, had been critical of the DNR's handling of the snake issue in a conservative blog in 2009 before she joined the agency. Deputy Secretary Matt Moroney had formerly served as executive director of the Waukesha-based Metropolitan Builders Association, which has been embroiled in the Butler's debate from the start.
Stepp and Moroney said they didn't intercede in the process; and last week, Kurt Thiede, administrator of the land division of the DNR, said the agency made its decision solely on science.
"There were no political motivations," Thiede said.
(Bolding mine)
More here.
It was a privilege to meet a Butler's Garter Snake in my backyard. What's happening in your backyard?
This Bucket is wide open for discussion and observation about your state of the world and other stuff that might be on your mind.
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