Areas in Louisiana and Texas are Critical Habitats for Rare Burrowing Snakes, Feds Say

The federal government is pushing for several locations in Louisiana and Texas to be recognized as critical habitats for a rare burrowing snake species.

The federal government recommends protecting four areas in Louisiana as well as two in Texas as vital habitats for a rare snake that likes to eat pocket gophers and takes over the burrows of rodents.

Louisiana Pinesnakes

Since 2018, Louisiana pinesnakes have been classified as threatened because they lay the largest eggs and also hatch the largest snakes in the US.

Sand-based grassy longleaf pine savannas' sharp decline and fragmentation are largely to blame for their decline. Losses are difficult to replace because Louisiana pinesnakes only lay three to five of their 5-inch-long eggs at a time due to their large size.

Since they spend over half of their time underground, the snakes, which can grow to 5 feet long, are difficult to count. Additionally, they blend in with brown pine needles, which have a buff yellowish background with black, brown, and rusty patches.

Critical Habitats

The US Fish and Wildlife Service has identified four areas as critical habitats that are mostly covered by national forests. Private land makes up all of the smallest areas in Texas and nearly all of the largest areas in north Louisiana, where the largest known population resides, including some areas covered by conservation agreements.

Only contracts that involve federal funding or that demand federal permits are covered by the limited protection for critical habitat. Other important habitat decisions have given rise to challenges from landowners and disagreement over which lands should be designated as such.

Private owners control over 99% of a proposed 95 square mile area in Bienville Parish in northwestern Louisiana, which is roughly the size of Milwaukee. In Scrappin' Valley, Texas, the smallest area, which is 8 square miles, is entirely privately owned.

According to Don Dietz, a consulting biologist for a family that owns 70% of the land, the Scrappin' Valley property is already managed for the endangered little red-cockaded woodpeckers, which also require open-canopied pine savannas.

According to Dietz, Red-cockaded woodpeckers consume a lot of ants, which require the space below. Therefore, the habitat is essentially unchanged.

Very few private landowners show concern about nature and working to ensure that species like the Louisiana pine snake survive, according to Noah Greenwald, director of endangered species at the Center for Biological Diversity. Environmental nonprofit Center for Biological Diversity. Very few private landowners show concern about nature and working to ensure that species such as the Louisiana pine snake survive, according to Noah Greenwald, director of endangered species at the Center for Biological Diversity. Center for Biological Diversity is an environmental nonprofit organization.

Elsie Bennett, a reptile and amphibian staff attorney for the nonprofit, said that after 34 years of being a candidate species for protection, her organization is thrilled to see the species finally get listed, AP News reports.

Scrappin' Valley

Two of the seven known pinesnake populations, according to the Fish and Wildlife Service, are in Texas, but Dietz wasn't convinced. He claimed he spent ten years trying in vain to capture Louisiana pinesnakes to show they existed in Scrappin' Valley.

According to the federal agency, there are additional populations in Louisiana's Bienville, Natchitoches, Grant, Sabine, and Vernon parishes. Approximately 0.5% of the suggested Bienville unit is taken up by Big Cypress State Park. According to Fish and Wildlife's economic evaluation, the snake benefits from a conservation agreement encompassing an additional 8.4 square miles.

Weyerhaeuser Land

In 2020, The Weyerhaeuser Co. declared that it had a 30-year contract to oversee Bienville Parish land for the Louisiana pinesnake.

Weyerhaeuser stated that it is attempting to comprehend how the federal proposal might cross over and possibly have an impact on the acres of vital habitat that the business is currently defending for the Louisiana pinesnake.

The business claimed in 2020 that federal and state biologists had assisted it in determining the two areas, with a combined area of about 2.8 square miles, that were most crucial for the snake. It stated that it would retain 1,383 acres with an open canopy as well as a grassy forest floor while converting about 440 acres of loblolly to longleaf pine.

According to Fortune, the longleaf conversion of Weyerhaeuser lands and open canopy areas may or may not fall within the proposed federal critical habitat, based on Wildlife and Fisheries assessment.

Regardless of where they are, according to Greenwald, nothing is being done to aid the Louisiana pinesnake on Weyerhaeuser land. According to a federal analysis, Louisiana pinesnake populations require blocks of over 11 square miles of mostly undisturbed habitat.

Other Areas

Approximately 89 square miles in Rapides Parish, over 68 square miles in Vernon Parish, and roughly 41 square miles in Grant Parish have also been proposed as critical habitats in Louisiana. Most of each are made up of various regions of the Kisatchie National Forest.

The second Texas region would primarily be in the Angelina National Forest and span nearly 25 square miles in the counties of Angelina and Jasper, Yahoo News reports.