I suppose it might be collected a lot. I just don't see that many garters in general being offered here in the states as they don't seem to be all that popular (as opposed to say a corn snake) I see quite a few wholesale lists and garters are not listed on many of them. Maybe its the "native" thing that turns people off. It seems that the rest of the world and Europe more specifically is way ahead of the US in breeding or even keeping garters. I know that there are a few people out there who are very serious about it and a lot of the people on this forum are more than simple beginners. Still, the garters have a long way to go before I would consider them a popular pet species here in the US.

You are very correct in your assessment of habitat conservation as well as protection of the species in general. From what I understand, with many species (the San Francisco garter for example) there is no reason why this should be an endangered species from the standpoint of numbers or the potential for extinction. The problem is that there is no place for them to live in their native range any more. It doesn't sound like it would be a problem to restock a large area with plenty of snakes but there simply isn't enough suitable habitat for it to happen.