Northern Ohio’s Only Venomous Snake is a Focus of Conservation

There are a total of three venomous snakes that are native to Ohio. The timber rattlesnake and northern copperhead can be found in southern Ohio, while the Massasauga rattlesnake is native to Northern Ohio and other areas of the Great Lakes. It’s also one of the few snakes that give live birth, says Garrett Ormiston, the manager of preserve operations for the  Cleveland Museum of Natural History.

The rattler makes its home in wet meadows, which were plentiful in the rural landscape when it still consisted of subsistence farms. “Farming really sustained the species,” he says.

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But as agriculture declined and the meadows got plowed under for development, the population declined. The museum is trying to reverse that with preserves in the Grand River watershed, including Windsor Woods in Trumbull County and Grand River Terraces in Ashtabula County.

One of the ways they try to keep the population stable is through brush-hogging, a cutting regimen that keeps trees from encroaching on the snake’s habitat.

“We’re in the business of preserving biodiversity,” he says. “Losing one species can have impact on others. Everything is connected.”

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