Attachment 474
Plans are about to put the Eastern Diamondback Rattle Snake on the endangered list. Apparently there are only about a 100,000 of them now on the Southern Seaboard. This is the largest rattlesnake species and, according to the Guinness Book of World Records, is the heaviest venomous snake. They are well known to be excellent swimmers. Specimens have often been spotted crossing stretches of water between barrier islands and the mainland off the Georgia coast. This species is the most dangerous venomous snake in North America.
I have seen a few big ones in SC. It is a big snake. In Florida they are real monsters growing to 8 foot. I am not sure if any live where I do in UpState SC. I doubt it, but no problem as the big Timber Rattlers fill the void. To that end, more people are snake bitten in the Carolinas than elsewhere in America, mostly by Copper Heads because guys tend to fuck with them for no reason I can offer up. Rattle snakes are often a big deal as to plot development in CowBoy movies. We all grew up afraid of those due to the movies. Here in the South, we got a lot more and they are a lot bigger. I was used to ours, but the movies ones were more scary.
I don't like snakes in my garden. It is not just blind fear as I grew up in the South catching them for fun as 10 years olds had no video games in my day. I don't like them now because they eat my critters. I need all my frogs, Chipmunks and birds more than I need snakes. Also, don't want my dogs and cats bitten. Most people survive any snake bite, but not so much for dogs. No snakes are welcome in my yard. I once watched as a big black snake took out a nest of Flickers too far up for me to help them. I have a pellet gun now that will never let that happen again if I see it. I don't want snakes in my garden. I know they are good in their own way, just prefer them in "your" garden. I have a snake catcher thing I found on line which is a long pincer thing. I can grab them, throw them in the can and take them to a new neighborhood. That is the plan, but have not yet caught one. I only see a couple a year, its not like I am over run here. I have seen two small ones this year that the cats already killed. Don't fear the snakes, fear my 3 pound cat.
Back to the Eastern Diamondback. It seems to me that if we have a 100,000 in SC, GA, and Fla, that is a lot. Keep in mind that these can kill and eat smaller dogs.
I am just being funny - here is the deal-->
Again the tree luggers are out of control. Putting the Diamondback on the endangered species would severely cut into logging, one of the biggest industries in the South East. My lake is 8 foot down right now and the legal reason the Feds use to drain it is to protect the 'snail darter' which is a 2 inch minnow a hundred miles down stream. The real reason is to make money generating electricity to sell to states like California who put up regulations to block Nuclear Plants. The big turbines need to turn as there is $$ to made.
All and any attempts to stop SC from producing trees to sell is wrong. Blocking off huge areas because a snake lives there is wrong. They been there since we were selling to the Spanish. This is not strip clearing like in South America, but a centuries old industry that is renewable forever. We sold tall pines for ship masts to the English and Spanish in the 1600's as well as the many by products. The SouthEast is not the Great NorthWest, but much of our economy is Forestry.
We do tend to vote to the right. It looks like the Obama group has found a new way to attack us. I guess the Tea Party groups that use the age old Diamondback flag with "Don't Tread on Me" has gotten under his skin.
Attachment 475
