Road where drivers give way to snakes

Press, 12 April 1984, Page 15

Road where drivers give way to snakes

NZPA-AP Jonesboro For several weeks, travellers along a 3.2 km stretch of scenic road in the Shawnee National Forest, Illinois, must yield the right-of-way to thousands of snakes. It is the time of year for the semi-annual migration of snakes hibernating at the base of a 106-metre Mississippi River bluff. In 1972 the United States Forest Service began closing the gravel road twice a year because some people driving through the forest’s 810 ha Larue Pine Hills ecological area were shooting the slithering creatures. It was just a kind of sport, said a forest ranger, Joe Newcomb. With the road closed for the last three weeks of

April, the snakes can freely travel nine metres across the road into the neighbouring Larue Swamp. They come out and go into the swamp and live their summer life there, Mr Newcomb said. Then, in the autumn, something tells them to go back, and the road is closed again. Although poisonous rattlesnakes, cottonmouths and copperheads are among the migrating reptiles, the area remains open to hikers. The route, Forest Service Road 345, lies between the Mississippi and big muddy

rivers near a tiny community called Wolf Lake, 25km north-west of Jonesboro in south-west Illinois. If it’s a warm afternoon with temperatures in the 70s, you can walk this road and see one to two dozen snakes, including the harmless water, rat, king and hog-nose varieties, said the Ranger. Joining the parade are tree frogs, soft-shell turtles and salamanders.

As Mr Newcomb puts it, everything comes alive out there this time in the spring.