San francisco garters?

[PINJOHN]

It would be interesting to know how members see the future of the san fran,do you for instance foresee the developers winning and leaving no place for these stunning snakes? do you hold the view that your wildlife services could care less about the san frans future and might be turning a blind eye to threats to the snakes,
the perverse situation is that here in Europe we are allowed to keep them but not so in the USA, the sting in the tale of course is they are now so inbred that the European stock are in as much trouble as their American kin.
some months ago i posed a hypothetical question about strengthening the European stock with out crosses, using a recessive eastern like a melanistic which brought a number of objections, i stress that this was hypothetical and remains so,
the Resurrection of this thread has started me thinking and has decided me to put forward my arguments for the crossing, i start by stating that i remain as much a purist when it comes to garters as everybody else on the site, i have never had any desire to see a puget crossed with a checkerd or any other abomination, just to see what you get, but i would like to see the big European breeders with a knowledge of genetics take on the task of reinvigorating the san fran gene pool, this snake for me is the most beautiful snake in the world and should be given every chance to go on sharing our planet alongside us, the situation is unique in that the European stock will not come into contact with the original American stock [what would be the point of smuggling the snakes INTO the USA] the future owners of the snakes would know of their gene strengthened history, for me its a win win situation we get to keep this wonderful snake in the healthy state to which its entitled and the progression towards its extinction in Europe is halted.
i dont believe for a minute that i have covered every argument or even many of them, i hope that my comments can stimulate arguments for and against and i expect to hear points that have just not occurred to me, but if your argument comes down to" i would rather they just died out" then that's a view i will never share.

[Stefan-A]

It would be interesting to know how members see the future of the san fran,do you for instance foresee the developers winning and leaving no place for these stunning snakes?

The developers will win and the inbred captive population will create a demand for fresh material from an already declining wild population. Within the next 30-50 years it'll get the IUCN classification EW and then possibly EX, unless San Francisco gets teleported away and the former habitats are restored.