I have a pond in my yard and see lots of snakes.  I now have a small snake
identification booklet and I can name them.  Tonight I saw a big black water
snake (about 30" long) and yesterday I saw a brown snake, about 8" long. 
Almost all of the snakes here are beneficial and should be protected.  

9 responses total.

        Great! snakes are a sign of a healthy area. All snakes are benificial
and will leave you alone if you leave them alone. If you take time to get to
know them, they will let you pick them up and hold them without any fuss. The
love the warmth of your hands and will get to recognize the vibrations of your
voice. They will listen to all your problems. just loving the warmth, flickin
their tongues at you...I used to do that when I was a kid...knew where the
snakes lived and had a daily route, visiting them, watching the young be
born...that's really cool to see...and occassionally offering a toad or two.

Toads are a sign of a healthy area. All toads are beneficial and will leave
you alone if you leave them alone....offering them to snakes isn't exactly
leaving them alone. I like to obsderve snakes in the wilkd too - but also all
other forms of life. If they choose to feed on one another, that is their
business, so I don't interfer, but nr do I assist. I guess this is the Prime
Directive.....

        Well, that's one way of looking at it...at other times, I will offer
the toad some crickets that I have caught...and at others, I will leave
oatmeal out for the crickets....still at others I may catch a fish and bury
it under my favorite tree....just giving my friends their favorite meal..all
apart of the nature of things.....I have learned from the snake and the taod
and the cricket and the tree....I am just saying thankyou, that's all. Just
thanks for the help.....and none of them have ever complained....

It is true that you are part of nature too, so everything you do is as
"natural"  as anything the snake or toad does - or at least some argue
this. However humans, because of their brains, have enormous power, and
even their simple (minded) acts can have enormous consequences to
environments. My perspective is that, when in the wild, one should not
interfer, as there is no way to know the consequences. Perhaps feeding a
toad to a snake inures that snake to the danger from other humans, or
removes that toad that otherwise, through chance or circumstances, might
be the key individual in maintaining the toad population in a habitat. I
don't know, and I didn't need it as food, so I keep my hands off. 

We have at home a gerbil, two hampsters, a toad, and a turtle, but all
captive bred (except the toad, but it was found injured and is in
rehabilitation).  We feed the toad crickets, but also captive bred. So, to
my knowledge, our manipulation of these animals is not impacting natural
habitats. [Certainly my house and my car and my food supply, and my toys
are impacting the environment to a much greater extent - but what can I
do? I'm natural, you know... 8^}). 

Why didn't you leave the injured toad alone?  Perhaps it was to be
food for that key individual in maintaining the snake population in
the habitat?  Curious how sometimes we help and sometimes we don't, and
it's interesting to hear the justifications in either case.

My teenage daughter "rescued" the toad, and she has not yet reached the
age of environmental philosophy.

I understand and appreciate your concern for the wild places. You see, when
I was a child, the wild places were my home and I understood that just being
in them had an effect. Where I walked and *how* I walked was important. I knew
the trees and the rocks, were to get water and food and could spend days there
without any help by age 10. We are apart of the balance... and first, the
understanding of what the balance is is paramount to fitting in. I have a
rattle that is made from a turtle shell. Once, I was scolded very strongly
by a radical vegitarian about this, to which I replied "When I catch up to
the raccoon that ate the turtle, I'll pass your complaint along." I always
leave enough for the next seven generations when I fish, or take medicine
plants, or dig for food. It is good for us to have a consciousness about these
things such as we do, to make sure that there is enough for our
great-grandchildren. The woods that I now live by are some of the healthiest
around. Each year, I cut the "too many" saplings, and the "twins". The animals
and winged ones maintain a balance....but the new neighborhood that was built
next to the woods has removed the meadows and changed the water table. I hurt
about this because ~all~  of the woods that I grew up in are now gone forever.

I will also add to #6 that my teenage daughter had some time ago captured
a toad in our garden and kept it for a couple of years but got concerned
about it not having a chance to reproduce and live a natural life, so this
summer released it. It took quite a bit travelling around to find a
habitat that she thought was worthy. It went to the Matthei botanical
gardens woods, in the end. I didn't speculate out loud about its chances
of survival there, but at least it *could* contribute to the gene pool. It
is common to be concerned for the individuals in wildlife, but neglect to
think of the species and its habitat requirements. I don't mind if the
educational process starts with concerns for the individuals, as long as
it shifts to the species and habitrats later. 

        I think that it is wonderful that you and your daughter do things like
this together. She is learning about the web of life and this is a good thing.

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