Page 29 - 2024MarApr

klahoma Game Warden Trey Hale
placed his hand into a small buck- DON P. BROWN/ODWC
et and lifted it out again. What he
held up in front of the crowd of
O schoolkids caused many of them to
shriek, scream and back away in alarm.
It was a juvenile western rat snake twisting
itself around Hale’s hand.
For Hale, that’s one of the best favorite parts
of the educational program he and fellow
Game Warden Ty Runyan present each spring.
“I like to watch the kids and see their faces
when they see them and look at them,” Hale said.
What the students are seeing up close and
personal are live snakes. Game Warden Trey Hale, based in Marshall County, and Game Warden Ty Runyan,
based in Garvin County, developed an educational outreach program on Oklahoma’s
Hale and Runyan developed their program venomous snakes, which they present to school students across southern Oklahoma.
about Oklahoma’s venomous snakes about four
DON P. BROWN/ODWC

years ago as a way to educate the public about A juvenile western rat
snakes of all kinds, and to fulfill a public out- DON P. BROWN/ODWC snake serves as Trey Hale’s
“hand prop.”
reach role as representatives of the Oklahoma
Department of Wildlife Conservation.
Hale, who is based in Marshall County, and
Runyan, based in Garvin County, have taken
the program to an average of four schools
each spring and have also presented at several
other public events across southern Oklahoma.
“People often don’t have a good under-
standing of venomous snakes. We just wanted
to raise public awareness from a conservation
mind-set.
“Just because it’s a snake, it doesn’t neces-
One of the teachers at Milburn Schools reacts to the feel
sarily need to die.”
of a live snake on her hand.
Preparing for the program begins in early

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