Sharp Park has also provided excellent habitat for the San Francisco Garter Snake,
Thamnophis sirtalis tetrataenia. The snakes used Laguna Salada, a lagoon for feeding and the surrounding upland refuge areas and basking habitats. In the 1940s, herpetologist Wade Fox surveyed Sharp Park for the first time, and found the species abundant, suggesting the population was present long-before the recently constructed golf course altered the species’ habitats.
However, Fox also discovered that the golf course was having detrimental impacts on this endemic snake. He found a snake killed by golfers in 1946, and noted that the species probably was frequently killed in this manner. Over the next few decades the snake’s population crashed, and in 2006 the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service concluded a dead snake found on the property was killed by the course’s lawn mowers. The population crash and the on-going take of the species is particularly worrisome because the survival of the Sharp Park population is key to the success of the species’ overall recovery plan. When the plan was written, Sharp Park had one of only six known potentially viable populations of the species. The plan states that at least four more would need to be established if the species is to have any chance of recovering. Unfortunately, the population at Sharp Park Golf Course has crashed since that time: there may be fewer than 10-20 individuals left on the property.
The San Francisco garter snake was protected by federal law by 1967, and was listed as an endangered species under the Federal Endangered Species Act when the Act was passed in 1973. It is also protected as a Fully Protected Species under California law, and therefore killing the species is not only illegal, but it is also impossible to get a permit to kill the San Francisco garter snake except for restoration projects and scientific research.
Since the garter snake was protected great effort has gone into conserving the species, including the creation of a recovery plan and controlling developments to ensure that the species’ habitats aren’t adversely modified. However, many obstacles still remain to the snake’s survival. Indeed, it is even starting to lose its favored prey, the California red-legged frog is itself threatened with extinction due to development and other threats. Restoring Sharp Park will help both imperiled species thrive. For more information on these two species and the park visit the
Wild Equity web site.