Thank you for providing an…

Thank you for providing an opportunity to review this Government Response Statement (GRS). These comments represent our organization’s official submission. This GRS is well written and the recommended actions generally address the threats that the Butler’s Gartersnake faces in Ontario.
The Butler’s Gartersnake faces significant threats and, as the GRS states, the species is only confirmed to be extant in two regions in Ontario, where the often isolated subpopulations are threatened by urban, industrial, and road development, and agricultural expansion. As such we fully support the proposed recovery goal “to maintain the current abundance and distribution of all extant sub-populations” and, where feasible, “managing and restoring the species’ habitat, improving habitat connectivity between local sub-populations, and reducing threats.”
We agree with the various high priority actions identified in the GRS. Continued strong habitat protection and habitat management and restoration are critically important for this species, given the threat of habitat loss, degradation and fragmentation. In addition, it is very important to monitor and assess subpopulations of Butler’s Gartersnakes across the species’ range in Ontario, and to develop and implement threat mitigation measures.
We look forward to seeing the final version of this GRS which maintains this strong support for recovery of this species.