Lake Erie watersnakes, perhaps the least cuddly and most unlikely among endangered species, have apparently reached full strength in the waters around several islands in the lake's shallow western basin.
That should soon mean an end to a decade under the protection of federal law for the swimming snakes. Their population has increased tenfold or more in the last decade to more than 12,000.
"This is a remarkable success story and a species turnaround in a very short time frame," said Georgia Parham, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
The federal agency proposed on Monday that the species be officially removed be from the list of federally endangered and threatened species after meeting population requirements. A public comment period and possibly hearings are likely to follow, however, so it could be June 2011 before the action becomes final, Parham said.
The watersnake -- a bland-colored, grayish-greenish snake that bites, but is generally considered harmless -- is found only in the waters surrounding Lake Erie's Kelley's Island and a trio of other smaller islands just south of the Canadian border.
The species-- known by scientists as Nerodia sipedon insularum --was first listed as threatened in 1999, a designation that meant it was "likely to become in danger of extinction within the foreseeable future."
Richard King, a Northern Illinois University researcher who began studying the Lake Erie water snake in 1979, convinced federal and state officials twenty years later, that the species was both unique and vanishing.
But it was one of his students who finished the job with a flourish.
Kristin Stanford -- an Ohio State scientist known as the "Island Snake Lady" -- used a rigorous annual census of snakes, education and her 2006 guest appearance on the Discovery Channel show "Dirty Jobs" to give the conservation effort national exposure.
"This is what it's all about, right?" Stanford said by cell phone during a break Wednesday from the second day of her annual snake round up. "I feel so spoiled by this, to be at the beginning of a conservation effort and then to see it come to fruition as quickly as it has."
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Parham said Stanford, island residents and others share the credit.
"She did an absolutely fantastic job -- and with a species that is not charismatic at all on its own," Parham said. "But it's also to the credit of the people on the islands themselves that the snake has come back like it has."
Other partners in education and the restoration of habitat included the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, Northern Illinois University, Lake Erie Islands Chapter of the Black Swamp Conservancy, Western Reserve Land Conservancy, Put-in-Bay Township Park District, the Cleveland Museum of Natural History and The Ohio State University Stone Laboratory.
About 300 acres of inland habitat and 11 miles of shoreline have been protected for the snake since it was listed, Parham said.
The Lake Erie watersnake was noted in writings as far back as the early 1800s -- by sailors who said the serpents had overrun the islands. But they were nearly killed off over the next century, first a victim of hogs brought in to kill them and then by the destruction of habitat by more and more human development.
So why did the snake come back so quickly? Probably a combination of instructive teaching and, serendipitously -- the arrival of invasive species.
"Certainly the education program -- teaching the islanders to 'Respect the Snake,' has cut back on human-induced mortality of the snakes, but mostly they've gained a plentiful food supply," said King.
That food supply is mostly round gobies, a Eurasian fish species thought to have hitched a ride into the Great Lakes on oceangoing vessels.
Although the Endangered Species Act will require five more years of monitoring even after the de-listing becomes official, Stanford said the Lake Erie watersnake is probably here to stay.
"These guys are living it up and eating well," she said. "The population will level off, but unless we turn on them, they're going to be just fine living with us here around the islands."
Public comments on the plan to take the Lake Erie watersnake off the federal Endangered Species list may be submitted through Aug. 2 at regulations.gov or by letter to Public Comments Processing, Attn: FWS-R3-ES-2010-0039, Division of Policy and Directives Management, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 4401 N. Fairfax Drive, Suite 222, Arlington, VA 22203.
A video report on the 2009 Lake Erie watersnake roundup on Kelley's Island.