I haven't talked about it much but I lost over 50 snakes in January and February 2014. I still don't know what killed them but I am assuming a virus or bacteria got into my snake room and wiped them all out. Only 1 snake survived and this snake is very special to me. He is a rosy boa given to me by a friend over ten years ago. I am not here to cry about my snakes dying - that will be another post. I just wanted to say that the loss of these snakes devastated me and I am finally recovering.
Rosy boa that survived the snake room devastation
For the last year, I have been cautiously, and slowly rebuilding my live snake teaching collection and very carefully watching for dying snakes. So far so good other than an entire batch of sick snakes I received from a dealer last year - they all died and some of them were quite expensive. I am happy to say that my other new snakes are thriving!!!
This brings me to this post, "Surprise Me With Snakes". I want you to send me snakes in the mail. Well, not through the USPS but FedEx. Snakes are expensive and I am cashless right now. Ringed pythons are on the top of my wish list right now as well as Savu pythons and African house snakes. Here is how to order and have these snakes shipped to the Center for Snake Conservation:
Ship to Cameron Young, Center for Snake Conservation, 1581 Ridgeview Drive, Louisville, CO 80027 (Phone: 720-245-1922 and email cayoung@snakeconservation.org)
That is it! THANKS!
P.S. Please note that this post is a complete joke - I don't and have never expected anyone to buy snakes for me. However, why not post a wish list and see what happens? You never know...
P.S.S. I also want/need this video camera (AX-100) to get back into the snake video making. I have some really fun and educational ideas floating in my head. I just need a new camera to make them happen. :)
How many of you just listen to music because you like
it?Crap – that is a stupid
question.Of course you like it or you
wouldn’t listen to it.But do you ever
let the music speak to you?I don’t mean
just listen to the lyrics or feel the beat and let the words move you. Instead, do you have a song that “speaks” to you?I
mean does music ever appear to in your life with purpose and meaning?It does for me and it seems that music speaking
to me is a common theme for my blog (a list of past music blogs are at the
bottom of this post).
Growing up, I wasn’t really into music.Sure I listened to it but I could never tell
you the words or meaning of a song.I
couldn’t even tell you who wrote or sang a song.My entire life, I have been envious of people
that can recite song lyrics and know the band in the first three notes of a song
but now I realize that I listen to music differently.I don’t listen to music to enjoy it although I
do enjoy music.I listen to music to see
if it speaks to me and what it could be saying.
Before Pandora, I rarely listened to music.As I mention above, I am not very good at
knowing bands or who sings songs that I like on the radio.This just led me to not listen to music
unless someone else was listening to it.But Pandora has changed this.Pandora picks the playlist for me and I think this is why music speaks
to me regularly now.The universe knows
what energy I need and then plays a song that fits my mood or feeling at that
moment.The music speaks.
This morning is a GREAT example of this and it has continued
through the day today (more on why I am listening to music at work in a bit).My routine each morning is to drive to the
bus stop (I should be riding my bike but that is another story) listening to
Mike & Mike (sports radio show).If they
are having a conversation that I want to continue to listen to, I open the ESPN
Radio app on my phone and keep listening.However, most mornings I am not interested in what they are talking
about so as I walk across the pedestrian bridge to cross the highway to
catch my bus, I start the Pandora app.
Not only do I enjoy the music but it often speaks to me (see previous blogs listed below). Here is how the music spoke to me this morning:
First song this morning:1-8-7 on an Undercover Cop by
Dr. Dre (click here to listen). 187 is the California Penal Code for murder and the song is
a pretty graphic song about gangster life in Los Angeles.First question I can hear you asking yourself right now is "Why is
Cameron listening to Gangster Rap?" and I don’t really have an answer for you.It fits my mood these days and this song
really nailed it this morning.Today is
my first day reporting to my new company’s office.I feel
like everything at work has been taken away and I am just in the system. I lost my office with a door and now I just
sit at a workstation.I feel demoted and
underappreciated for my skills and work.I am now just one of the masses at an office job.This is something that I have never felt
before and I want out.As Dr. Dre writes
and sings, “I got my eyes on the shit unfolding.And there ain’t gonna be no trippin’ cause
they know the type of shit that I be holding.”
My new "workspace" at work
I then checked my horoscope.I used to check this frequently but haven’t in a long time but hey if
the Universe is speaking to me through music, why not check my horoscope as
well?BAM!It hit me hard.
My horoscope for the 14th of December, 2015
My current situation is buried deep in the dirt and I have
to trust that the sun is up there shining down.If I can trust the sun, I will sprout and have a chance to grow big and
beautiful.I am not sure if this is with
my current employer but I have a feeling it is talking about my snake dream.
I make the sun shine in my so called "workspace" with a snake (it isn't real unfortunately)
Immediately after I read my horoscope, the song Clint
Eastwood by Gorillaz cued up on Pandora.Bam – music speaks (listen here).I don’t
normally put an entire song’s lyrics into my blog but this is just too perfect
not too.
"Clint Eastwood"
I ain't happy, I'm feeling glad
I got sunshine in a bag
I'm useless but not for long
The future is coming on
I ain't happy, I'm feeling glad
I got sunshine in a bag
I'm useless but not for long
The future is coming on
It's coming on
It's coming on
It's coming on
Yeah... Ha Ha!
Finally someone let me out of my cage
Now, time for me is nothing cause I'm counting no age
Now I couldn't be there
Now you shouldn't be scared
I'm good at repairs
And I'm under each snare
Intangible
Bet you didn't think so I command you to
Panoramic view
Look I'll make it all manageable
Pick and choose
Sit and lose
All you different crews
Chicks and dudes
Who you think is really kickin' tunes?
Picture you gettin' down in a picture tube
Like you lit the fuse
You think it's fictional?
Mystical? Maybe.
Spiritual
Hero who appears in you to clear your view when you're too crazy
Lifeless
To those the definition for what life is
Priceless
To you because I put you on the high shit
You like it?
Gun smokin' righteous with one toke
You're psychic among those
Possess you with one go
I ain't happy, I'm feeling glad
I got sunshine in a bag
I'm useless but not for long
The future is coming on
I ain't happy, I'm feeling glad
I got sunshine in a bag
I'm useless but not for long
The future (that's right) is coming on
It's coming on
It's coming on
It's coming on
The essence the basics
Without did you make it
Allow me to make this
Child-like in nature
Rhythm
You have it or you don't that's a fallacy
I'm in them
Every sprouting tree
Every child of peace
Every cloud and sea
You see with your eyes
I see destruction and demise (that's right)
Corruption in disguise
From this fuckin' enterprise
Now I'm sucked into your lies
Through Russel, not his muscles but percussion he provides
For me as a guide
Y'all can see me now 'cause you don't see with your eye
You perceive with your mind
That's the inner
So I'mma stick around with Russ and be a mentor
Bust a few rhymes so motherfuckers remember where the thought is
I brought all this
So you can survive when law is lawless (right here)
Feelings, sensations that you thought was dead
No squealing, remember that it's all in your head
I ain't happy, I'm feeling glad
I got sunshine in a bag
I'm useless but not for long
The future is coming on
I ain't happy, I'm feeling glad
I got sunshine in a bag
I'm useless but not for long
My future is coming on
It's coming on
It's coming on
It's coming on
It's coming on
My future is coming on
It's coming on
It's coming on
It's coming on
It's coming on
My future is coming on
It's coming on
It's coming on
It's coming on
It's coming on
My future is coming on
It's coming on
It's coming on
My future is coming on
It's coming on
It's coming on
My future is coming on
It's coming on
It's coming on
My future
My future is coming on. Damn!This is incredibly powerful for me right now.I am stuck in bad place but the music speaks and is telling me that my future is
coming on.
As my bus was exiting the interstate into downtown Denver, “Time
to Get Ill” by the Beastie Boys (Click here to listen) started playing in my ears.Perfection!
“I'm not the type of person who like to waste my time
And when I'm on the mic I just say my rhymes
And I'm out on bail, the check is in the mail
They can sentence me to life but I won't go to jail
I'm cool calm collected, from class I was ejected”
My new office and current job are jail and I won’t go
there.It is “time to get ill” and find
my way out of here.
My boss and another coworker doomed into "workspace hoteling land"
As I got on the elevator to head up to the 17th
floor of my current corporate job hell, Eminem was rapping through my
headphones.More explicit and inappropriate
lyrics but damn, they spoke to me as I was headed up the elevator. The song – Bitch Please II (Click here to listen).
“somehow, someway - tell 'em, nigga
You know about Dogg-ay
Now let me cut these niggaz up and show em where da fuck I'm comin from
I get the party crackin from the shit that I be spittin son
Hit-and-run, get it done, get the funds, split and run”
Was all this a coincidence?You can believe that but I believe in magic.I believe that we can control our own destiny
with the energy we attract and draw upon throughout our lives.I am struggling with finding the positive
energy that will propel me to reach my dream but I know it is there.I have to have faith that the sun is shining
bright and all I need to do is sprout.Once I sprout and my cotyledons reach the light, I will grow straight,
strong, and beautiful.I will believe
that my future is bright, I have to wear shades.
The song playing right now on Pandora is “Don’t You (Forget
About Me)” by the Simple Minds (Listen here).Music
speaks…
Today marks a sad day for me. I am losing my office tomorrow and today is the day I take everything home with me. I am losing my office because the company I work for was bought by a much larger consulting firm that wanted access to our clients and projects. Well they got it but in their purchase, I am losing my office. I have had an office with a door for the last 10 years and I am not sure if I am going to know how to operate in cube land. Actually, the new company doesn't even have cubes - they use an open floor plan with dog-bone workstations. They use a "hoteling" system to reserve workstations for a week or two at a time. Research has shown that this type of work environment is lousy and does not increase productivity but rather breeds resentment and a miserable work environment. I guess I will learn if I can work in this environment next week but I can already tell you that my new co-workers are not going to like the chaos and noise I bring to the workplace.
As I whine and cry with my co-workers (we are an office of 7 people that work incredibly well together) about our move, I have been looking for any excuse NOT to work. Yes - I am still getting my job done but it is the in-between times that find me looking at old photos, surfing the internet, and even shopping for Christmas gifts for my boys. That is when I found this photo I titled "Two Balls".
Two Balls
I took this SnakeSelfie last winter on a sunny afternoon in my living room. The snakes were new to me and I needed to get to know them before I used them in any snake programs. I don't mind being bitten by snakes but I cannot have any of my snakes bite anyone else - that would just not be good for business. The snake on my right shoulder is a biter but the snake on my left shoulder is a sweetheart.
The photo title, "Two Balls", has double meaning in that it references the species of snake - ball python and it references the male anatomy. Now, I can already feel you rolling your eyes at me and hear your thought of "that's disgusting" but really it is kind of funny if you can just let your immature self out for a moment. I certainly can and probably do let my immaturity out too much but right now that is my frame of mind. I am moving into an office where I am being treated as a dollar sign rather than an employee (new company is all about profit) and forced to work in a setting that resembles the a computer lab with white noise blaring from speakers to help drown out conversations. This is a perfect storm to bring out my immaturity and this photo represents my mood almost perfectly if you can remove the sadness of losing my office.
I let my immature frame of mind about this move slip during a recent "integration" meeting that the new company had with us a few weeks ago. They were introducing the "hoteling" and open floor plan to us in addition to other benefit related changes (I never even knew that there could be a spousal surcharge for health insurance). During a pause in their presentation, I raised my hand and asked what day and time the Nerf wars occurred. You should have seen the blank stares I got and the two people giving the presentation are two of the folks I thought had the better senses of humor in the new company. FUCK - I am so screwed.
Seating Chart for my first week at the new office
One positive is that my boss is also having to give up his office and will join me in "hotel hell". Just this week, we received our assigned workstations and Andrew (my boss) is close enough to shoot rubber bands at throughout the day. Actually, at a previous employer, he was a part of the rogue group in their cube land that was responsible for a rubber band policy banning all shooting of rubber bands in the office. I can see similar policy being enforced in our near future.
So despite all the negatives of being sold to a company with a very different and profit driven culture, I think my work family will find a way to bring our fun with us. If not, I can only hope to be laid off so I will be forced to pursue my snake dream.
Let me preface this blog post with this is not my best work but it needs to be published regardless. I started this post last April when I took the two sunrise photos on my way into work one morning and never finished it. It is rough, very rough but it really identifies something about myself that I need to acknowledge and address. Here is my post and hopefully I can write another one soon that can share the successes of my journey to see past the obstacles.
Everywhere I look, I see obstacles and it is really beginning to piss me off. This happens not only in my physical view of the world but also in how I view myself.
Powerlines obstructing a beautiful sunrise
My experience with most other humans is that they never see the obstacles impeding our views. I have heard people marvel at the beauty of the sunrise or sunset but all I see are the powerlines obstructing my view. Everywhere I drive, I see the underground pipelines that have bisected our landscape. The roads themselves are obstacles to our planet's true beauty but do people really see them? I don't think so. Many people think cities, buildings, and bridges are pretty but I see concrete and steel polluting my view.
I wish I were gifted enough to see past the obstacles. I need a shift in my perspective. I know I am unhappy (even angry) with my current place in life but what have I done to make a change - lately, I haven't done much.
I have wallowed in my anger that things aren't moving anywhere with my snake dreams but do I try to make them move? Not really. I just see the obstacles in my path to achieving my dreams. I see the lack of time, the lack of money, and the lack of support as negatives and obstacles. I don't see the positive and wonderful view of my work, the lives I have touched, the opinions I have changed, or the inspiration of my snake talks. No. I do think I can see these things but they are blocked by the obstacles I create for myself.
It is time to see past the obstacles and I hope I can find ways to articulate my journey to reprogram my brain. Right now, I am just spinning at my desk trying to figure out what to do next but isn't this already a success? I know what I need to do - I need to see past the obstacles.
Have you ever had Flamin' Hot Limon Cheetos? Probably not but let me tell you that they are GROSS. I cannot stand them but I also have a irresistible draw to them and I eat at least 1 small bag a week (maybe 2 if I am truly honest with myself and you). Cheetos are just disgusting in general but when you take away the fake orange cheese and add a fluorescent red flamin' hot powder instead, they just get nastier. Despite my aversion to them, I simple must have them when feeling stressed out - especially if they are the limon flavor.
Cheetos with a Texas Indigo
I stress eat and today was one of those days I needed to bury my stress with some Flamin' Hot Limon Cheetos. Today's bag was my second of the week. Stress eating does funny things to my mind. The entire time I am stuffing my face with Cheetos, my mind is screaming at me to stop but I don't. I eat and eat until the entire bag is gone. In no way, shape, or form does eating an entire bag of Cheetos make my stress go away. If anything, it gives me something else to not like about myself.
Breakfast of champions while watching YouTube videos and working with Google Earth
So why eat something that I don't even like that ultimately makes me feel worse than when I started? I have no f&#!ing clue. It just happens. I find myself wandering down to the 7/11 and buying a bag of the red cheese flavored snacks and before I know it, they are gone. This happened to me at 8:30am today. Yes - I ate an entire bag of Flamin' Hot Limon Cheetos before 9:00am on a Thursday.
Instead of beating myself up today over this, I have decided to post a few of the photos I have taken in 2015 of my disgusting habit. My only regret is that I didn't take a photo every time I did this but I think the following photos will give you a snapshot of my response to stress. In addition, here is a short video using the hashtag #WineCam to fully disclose my problem with stressing out and eating Flamin' Hot Limon Cheetos for breakfast.
Yes - this is embarrassing but maybe I can change this behavior if I show the world who I really am.
Flamin' Hot Limon Cheetos with a Big Gulp for breakfast
Flamin' Hot Limon Cheetos with salmon for breakfast while delineating habitats in Texas
Flamin' Hot Limon Cheetos with pizza and salmon for breakfast
Flamin' Hot Limon Cheetos with burgers for breakfast
You need rhino skin If you're gonna begin To walk Through this world You need elephant balls If you don't want to crawl On your hands Through this world
-Tom Petty
In my last post I bashed environmental consultants that like to claim the title "biologist". I stand by my opinion that most consultants are clueless to what it takes to be a good biologist and I have another example from the same project I wrote about in my last blog post. However, this time I am going to bash my own company.
Last year the consulting firm that I work for was sold to another larger consulting firm. The original plan was to keep my company as a separate business unit in an attempt to maintain our culture and profitability. We had an incredible culture that is being destroyed by the anti-social capitol and greed inducing culture of profit centers that the new company has currently. Wow - I could write for days about the importance of social capitol in the workplace because my old company's value of creating a workplace and work relationships that are positive is the #1 reason I am still a consultant - in short, I enjoy the people I work with and my place of work despite permitting projects that completely go against my moral person.
Texas Tortoise Selfie taken in the thick scrub in south Texas
As a part of the new and forced integration, we have been directed to share work with people in the company that now owns us. In part, this directive comes from the new company's greed (we are more profitable than them) and secondly that they are not nearly as busy as we are (I understand the second part). So, in our generous and cooperative nature, we have given the drafting of the Biological Assessment (BA) for our project in south Texas to staff in our new company. The trouble is that the staff we assigned the BA to are from Massachusetts and Maryland with no experience in Texas or even the southern half of the United States. Does this stop consultants? ABSOLUTELY NOT! We can work anywhere. This just makes me chuckle to think about and when I met these folks in the field for an afternoon, I laughed even harder.
The first negative I had with my new co-workers is that they were over 5 hours late meeting me in the field for their site tour. We planned to meet them at 10:00am but they didn't arrive until after 3:00pm. REALLY? Who shows up that late??? This immediately started things off on the wrong foot.
The second negative was that they had no idea or even a clue about the biological significance and uniqueness of a loma. They thought that the entire site was dredge spoil and human-made. It was clear that they had not done any homework before getting on a plane and traveling a full day to the field in south Texas. They hadn't even read any of the previous reports we had sent them nor did they have a map of the site. I spent the first hour of their field visit getting them up to speed on the ecology of the area.
Then it was time for the Otto and Cameron show. As I mentioned in my last post, Otto is a true biologist with an insatiable appetite to learn everything he can about the ecology and biodiversity of his current location. This could be a vacant lot in the middle of New York City but Otto would still be looking for plants and critters. He and I share a lot in common and our passion for the field was a great synergy for this project. I should mention here that another employee from my current company was with us in the field but she was very green to field work. That said, she was eager to learn and had done her homework before coming to Texas. Her role on the project was that of data collection and GPS monkey and therefore not responsible for understanding the biological complexities of the site. In fact, all the homework she did prior to coming to the field was a great introduction for her and she was able to help both Otto and myself immensely.
So what is the Otto and Cameron show? Well, it is where we take inexperienced people and test their abilities in the field. I have been known to take people far from the car and then quietly and quickly disappear into the woods just to double back and watch my field partner's response. If they continue their work without me present, they pass. If they stop work and begin to look for me with a panic look, they fail. I prefer to work with people who are comfortable in the field and don't need me to show them the way back to the car.
After the hour-long introduction to the ecology of the site, Otto and I headed off into the shrubland in search of rare plants and animals. At first, I stuck to one of the trails that had been bushwhacked through the thick scrub so the archaeological crews could complete their transects. Once sufficiently deep into the scrub, I left the trail and never saw my two new coworkers again until it was time to wrap up surveys in that area and move to another. I found them waiting at the car for me so at least they could get back to the car. Otto and I both laughed that night and for the rest of our trip about how we both knew that neither of my new coworkers would follow us into the scrub. Erin sat quietly during these discussions but she had already passed with flying colors.
Why? Because it is hard and it hurts. Almost every shrub in south Texas has thorns and lots of them. Here is Erin (the GPS monkey) busting through the scrub as she followed me soon after we left our visitors on one of the archaeology transects. The scrub will hurt you and scar you.
Erin bravely fighting the scrub
This next set of photos, like yesterday's post, could get me fired. They are in direct violation of my company's health and safety plan. They show examples of the thorns we pulled out of our arms, legs, and hands each evening before our showers (we did, however, record and report all the ticks on our bodies to meet my company's new tick safety "near-miss" recording policy). Technically, I should have not gone into the field without personal protective equipment (PPE) to prevent the thorns from ever touching my skin. This means I would have had to wear body armor, gloves, and safety glasses - all of these greatly hinder biological surveys especially the safety glasses. No way will I wear glasses of any sort in the field as they change my vision reducing my ability to detect critters. Even clear safety glasses mess with my vision and body armor would have been way too hot causing us to take more breaks than work. If any of my company's health and safety officers ever saw these photos, I would be answering a lot of questions. Erin even had the spine of a Spanish Dagger plant pierce her thick rubber boot and stab her in her shin.
This thorn was discovered just before my shower on the second day in the field - it had penetrated and broken off in my skin through the heavy canvas pants I was wearing.
Example of the many thorns we removed from our hands
Does having rhino skin make me a good biologist? Absolutely not! However, my willingness to get stabbed repeatedly and sweat through my clothes to ensure I visited every part of the project site in the little time that I had there does. My 34 hours on the site were spent exploring as many square feet and acres possible in hopes of finding something new or even one of the federally and state listed species I was tasked to find. What did my colleagues that only had 4 hours on the site do? They stuck to the trails just as expected of a stereotypical environmental consultant. They failed my "are you a biologist test" in every manner possible and these are the people responsible for writing the Biological Assessment.
Tom Petty sings about the need to have rhino skin to survive the "needles and pins, the arrows of sin, the evils of men" and I couldn't agree more. I have kept my mouth shut about the sins of my profession but it may be time for me to start screaming. I am tired of writing subpar impact assessments. I am tired of permitting projects without science. I am tired of pretending to be a biologist at work. In addition, the drastic 180 degree change from a company focused on building social capitol among its staff to a company that is only focused on profit as really sent me into a frenzy. I don't want to have rhino skin anymore. It is time to grow elephant balls and forge my own path through the thornscrub of humans plundering our planet.
Rhino Skin - Tom Petty
You need rhino skin If you're gonna begin To walk Through this world You need elephant balls If you don't want to crawl On your hands Through this world
Oh my love if I reveal Every secret I've concealed How many thoughts would you steal How much of my pain would you feel
You need eagles wings To get over things That make no sense In this world
You need rhino skin If you're gonna pretend You're not hurt by this world
If you listen long enough You can hear my skin grow tough Love is painful to the touch Must be made of stronger stuff
You need rhino skin To get to the end Of the maze through this world
You need rhino skin Or you're gonna give in To the needles and pins The arrows of sin The evils of men You need rhino skin
Although I tell people I am the Executive Director of the Center for Snake Conservation, my paying job is a biologist at an environmental consulting firm. Well, I claim to be a biologist but I don't do much biology work anymore. I really just write impact assessments and make sure my clients follow applicable environmental laws such as these federal laws:
National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA);
Endangered Species Act (ESA);
Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act (BGEPA); and
Migratory Bird Treaty Act (MBTA).
I also deal with state laws but these laws are easily circumvented or even ignored (loopholes) when dealing with the large federally regulated projects I typically deal with. Here is a recent example of how a state law is worthless when it comes to the projects I deal with. I can't insert specific details because I could lose my job but I think you all will hate my job too once you read this story.
I work for rich people - very rich people. Some of the richest people in the world - in short, I work for the oil and gas industry. This industry just prints its own money whenever they want. Not literally but extracting fossil fuels is a lucrative business. Sure the price of oil is low right now and thousands of people are losing their jobs but these aren't the rich people anyway. The rich people are the owners and CEOs of the corporations I work for and they make money no matter what happens to the oil and gas prices because the humans on our amazing planet are addictively dependent on oil and gas (and the products created from these) - the more we have the more we need (demand?).
Sunrise from the Loma
One of the projects I am currently assigned to permit is a Natural Gas Export Facility in south Texas. This facility is going to take natural gas extracted from a 65 million year old source in Mexico and freeze it after it is piped into the United States to then be shipped off to who knows where. It will then be burned to generate electricity so more people can be productive at night rather than sleeping (gotta keep the factories running 24/7). I may sound cynical because this is all a GREAT alternative to coal created energy. However, I still wonder if it is really needed. Why not create the energy using the sun where it is needed - in the cities - rather than extract it in one country, pipe it to another, freeze it into a liquid, put it on a supertanker, ship it through the Panama Canal, then off load it, and burn it thousands of miles from the source. The cost to build this one project alone would put solar panels on every house in China but no - someone that is already richer than snot needs more money. Oh yeah - and our insatiable appetite for plastics created from components of the oil we extract adds to this huge pandemic. Can you tell I am a bit biased? Here is the reason I am biased:
I recently visited the over 600 acre site I am permitting this past September (one day) and October (four days). This was a HUGE mistake for a conservation minded person like me. This site has not been developed yet so I got to see it before the whole evil process I write about above takes place. This site is special - very special actually and may just be one of the most biologically unique places I have ever been (and I have been a LOT of places). The site is situated on a loma. A loma is a clay island along the Atlantic Coast near the Rio Grande River in Texas and Mexico. Lomas are formed by the collection of clay particles downwind of saline flats and they are old. They are islands isolated by tidal flats and marshes making them islands of biodiversity. I was visiting the loma on this site to conduct a wildlife and plant inventory and I found a lot of really cool things in my short time there.
I didn't find many snakes (11 snakes total - 5 species) while on the loma (I wasn't allowed on the site at night) but the snakes I did find were impressive. First, I saw two of the largest rattlesnakes I have ever seen in my life on the site. These snakes were HUGE! Easily 6 feet long and if you know me, I don't exaggerate my snake stories like some fishermen and internet snake sensations. I did not catch and measure these snakes although I would have if handling the snakes wasn't against my company's safety protocols. These snakes were HUGE.
However, those snakes aren't what make this site really special. I took a botanist with me to south Texas to help with the plant inventory but soon I had him looking for snakes and tortoises more than plants with my stories of previous field ventures. He is so into biology and ecology that his appetite to learn more about where we were was insatiable - a perfect field companion for me. On Wednesday, we were investigating and delineating a large colony of a rare plant that Otto (the botanist) had found the afternoon before. Otto was heading deep into the shrubland to find a good specimen to photograph when I heard him yell, "big black snake". This could only mean one thing - he found a Texas indigo snake - a snake I had never seen in the wild before. I was about 50 yards away from Otto but I could see he was frozen in place - this is typical of botanists that find big snakes. I also knew I didn't have much time before the Texas indigo disappeared into the thick brush and would never be seen again so I started sprinting. As I ran, I striped myself of my backpack, camera, and binoculars I had around my neck - I knew I would have to extend myself to catch this snake and I didn't want to miss it because my camera swung around and hit me in the face. I wish Otto could finish the story here because he is quite colorful in his description of me sprinting towards him and diving over the cactus to catch a snake.
Otto had frozen when he saw the "large black snake" and in retrospect this allowed me to catch it. If he had made an attempt to catch the snake, it would have been spooked well before I arrived. I never would have even seen it. Otto's freeze told me exactly where the snake was as I was running through the cactus filled shrubland and as I got closer to him, I watched his eyes to see where the snake was. My eyes then caught the back half of the "large black snake" in a small grassy patch behind a large cactus. The front half of the snake was already in the shrubs and I had little time to devise a strategy to catch it so I dove.
Texas Indigo Snake
Texas Indigo Snake
I learned a long time ago that if you think about catching a snake, you won't catch it. By the time your brain is done processing that it wants to catch the snake, most snakes have disappeared. So I have taught my brain to instantly identify snakes as venomous or non-venomous and this has allowed me to react to the catch rather than plan and think about the catch. Any non-venomous snake can bite me all it wants as long as I catch it and most venomous snakes are slow to flee making them easier to photograph with no handling. This training ultimately gave me the opportunity to take these photos of one of our planet's most amazing snakes. It also afforded me the pleasure of pulling cactus spines out of my arms, legs, and head after diving to make the catch. :)
Some of the over 50 cactus spines in my head from diving for snakes in south Texas
So is it the fact that some of the largest rattlesnakes I have ever seen and a few Texas indigo snakes are going to be killed during the construction of this project why I hate my job? Of course I don't like knowing that these snakes will be killed but that is not why I hate my job. Why I hate my job is that no matter how good I am at my job (a different consulting firm we previously hired as a subconsultant to conduct the surveys I did reported that Texas indigos did not occur on the site and that Texas tortoises were unlikely - see below for more on the tortoises actually on the site), the laws designed to protect our planet are weak or not enforced.
Example: The Texas tortoise is one of 4 species of tortoise in North America. Most of my consulting work when I lived in Florida and Georgia was spent surveying and permitting the "take" of gopher tortoises across the southeast. "Take" is the legal word for "kill". For gopher tortoises, there are survey requirements, a permitting process, and mitigation requirements for their "take" so at least the "take" is accounted for, recorded, and paid for in a standard way. This is not the case for Texas tortoises despite that they are listed as "threatened" by the state of Texas.
Male and Female Texas Tortoises - They are sexually dimorphic
Texas doesn't have survey methods for tortoises. This creates opportunities for very unqualified consultants to visit a site and never find them (that is exactly what happened previously on this project). These unqualified consultants (note that I do not call them biologists - the majority of consultants that call themselves biologists are NOT - don't be fooled. Most often they have general degrees with little or no field experience - in fact most consultants in the field are straight out of college with no experience - people with experience are too expensive to spend long hours in the field) then write a report and projects proceed killing tortoises all across their range. Even when tortoises are found, there isn't any effort to determine the number of tortoises on a project site. This is how consulting works and the regulators just accept it rather than demanding that proven, scientific methods be used by qualified and experienced biologists. Maybe that is okay for business and government work but it is NOT okay for the future of our planet.
Okay - so a previous consulting firm documented ZERO tortoises on the site and reported that tortoises were unlikely to occur on the site. I was on the site for 34 hours during the first week of October and found 48 tortoises - this is more than one tortoise per hour!!!! Now for the math to estimate the actual number of tortoises on the site. Since I would need at least 3 weeks on the site to do an adequate survey for tortoises to get a real estimate, I have to rely on the literature. In the 1970s and early 1980s, several very good herpetologists estimated densities of Texas tortoises on the lomas of south Texas to vary from 3 to 9 tortoises per acre but found a site were there were 49 tortoise per acre. The site I visited for this project was covered in tortoise signs (scat, trails, pallets (places they rest)) and the densities are quite high on 110 acres of the 600+ acre site. On the low end of average from the literature, there are 330 tortoises on the site. On the high end of average, there are 990 tortoises on the site. On the maximum end of the spectrum, there are 5,390 tortoises on the site. My guess is 500 tortoises from my experience with tortoises elsewhere and the condition of the site.
No one really knows how old tortoises live but this one in the video above is ancient. Its shell is almost smooth from age and rubbing through the grasses and shrubs for 50-60 (or 100) years.
500 Texas tortoises! Think about it - another consulting firm said that tortoises are not likely present on the site and that Texas indigo snakes are NOT present. This happens daily all across the planet - unqualified people make determinations that they have no business making because they are being paid as a consultant to make these determinations. Now not all consultants are bad. The botanist, Otto, that joined me in south Texas to help with the botany inventory is beyond excellent and extremely good at detecting all critters even though he freezes when he sees snakes. However, from my 16 years experience as a consultant, he is the minority. Is this the fault of the consultants doing the bad work? No. It is the fault of the laws and regulators allowing "general" descriptions and bad assessments substitute "science" when permitting projects. Our current culture of progress and maximizing profit has clouded our vision of the real importance of our planet - its amazing biodiversity.
Now the kicker - my survey report is a part of the public record and permitting process. Will it change the outcome or mitigation requirements for this project? Unfortunately no and THIS IS WHY I HATE MY JOB! This project is being permitted by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and everything is open to public review and comment. FERC has a permitting process that works and that should be a good thing. But even though both the indigo snake and tortoise are listed as 'threatened" by the state of Texas, there is no permitting or mitigation required for them. Therefore, FERC will not require anything from the project proponent (my client) for the destruction of this loma. The public can scream and yell all they want but it won't change that Texas does not have a permitting process for listed species and also does not enforce their own law that prohibits the "take" of a state threatened species. They just say that the project can't kill the tortoises and then they look the other way. Over the next month, I will be tasked to write a mitigation plan that includes saving the tortoises but all we are doing is picking them up and placing them outside the construction fence - it would be better to run them over with the bulldozer than to relocate them into an area that isn't habitat. I will write a BOGUS document that makes the public and permitting agencies feel good but really I am just writing the death warrant for 500 or more tortoises. THIS IS WHY I HATE MY JOB!
Texas Tortoise
Can this be changed? Maybe but that would take massive legislative changes to require REAL SCIENE when permitting projects and a change in human attitudes towards conservation. As a National Park Service employee said during my initial site visit in September, "This site in Texas needs to be protected from all development", and he was just interested in the cultural and archaeological history of the area - not the biology!
We documented over 200 plant, mammal, bird, reptile, and amphibian species in 34 hours on the site and this is just a snapshot of the high biodiversity of this loma. I want to go back to find more snakes (I wasn't allowed on the site at night when I know we could have found some really cool critters). Unfortunately, because I found so many tortoises and indigo snakes, I will probably never be allowed to go back just in case I find something (like an ocelot) that could stop this development.
I guess I am showing my true colors as a bleeding heart liberal tree (snake) hugger - I hate my job as a consultant.
