Snake Road closes for two-month migration event

ILLINOIS(KBSI) – A two-month migration event is attracting a lot of visitors as reptiles and amphibians’ species travel down a single stretch of road protected by the Shawnee National Forest called Snake Road.

Snake Road is a 2.7-mile-long gravel road. It runs through the LaRue Pine Hills research natural area.

Wildlife Biologist for Shawnee National Forest Mycah Scoggins says they usually close the road March through May depending on when they start seeing snake movement in an effort to protect many species of snakes including some that are endangered or threatened.

“They are consistently crossing this road those times of year and by closing the road, we mitigate a bunch of vehicle collisions that would, definitely impact the population here” says Scoggins.

Even when the road is closed to traffic citizens can still walk the road by foot, but its encouraged to stay on the road and use caution. Scoggins shares that locals have become very involved in Snake Road, so much so that they have a volunteer program where volunteers collect snake data for the forest service called Snake Sentinel.

“Snakes can be pretty difficult to study, and they also are an extremely vital part of an ecosystem, right? So, there’s so many species and so many snakes here because the prey is here, right. So, a balanced ecosystem, we need prey. We need predator” says Scoggins.

All visitors should keep distance from snakes and are prohibited from touching or removing snakes from the area as the Shawnee National Forest says they play a vital role in the management of the area for decades.

The area now has at least 22 different species of snakes in a 2.7-mile radius, three of those species being venomous.

“The road’s been closed since 1972, but we don’t have any long-term data sets about the snakes here and that’s something that we are now collecting so that hopefully, you know, in the future we’ll have years and years of data to look back on and be able to see if there are changes, if there are impacts” says Scoggins. “You know, there’s lots of things that are changing in society and on our planet and we want to be able to track any changes that potentially could be happening.” 

For more information on Snake Road snakes:

Virtual McLib Live – Snake Road: Secrets of Successful Snake Watching

Illinois Species | INHS Herpetology Collection | Illinois Natural History Survey | Illinois