I have been talking off and on with a Californian who works construction and is involved in the preservation of the species... Meaning that ANY tetrataenia encountered on the job site MUST be relocated to a safer place.

He has indicated to me that the government population census is taken from public lands and completely overlooks the vast privately owned farms, vineyards, orchards and forests.

So with that, I would be inclined to believe there is less of a gene pool problem in the wild populations than most of us speculate.

The sad part about that photo, it was taken by a CASUAL collector who is not a breeder, he does not care about the genetics, all he saw that day was some pretty garter snakes making more pretty garter snakes.