Woodpiles and brushy areas that attract prey species will attract things that eat them. A corn crib or chicken coop might help for the black rats. Pieces of plywood or corrugated metal sheeting won't attract them to the area so much as give you a good way to monitor which species are around, though you might want to be careful not to make the place look like a junkyard. I have several placed at different areas around my property, mostly at field edges just for that purpose. Expect to find many garter snakes to one of most other species. Copperheads require specific conditions in a den site this far north, so there must be one located within two miles or so of you. Many people confuse Eastern milks and Northern watersnakes with copperheads or "water mocassins".

I know what milk snakes are ,I'm familar with Northern water snakes,very abundant to this area,and I know what a copperhead looks like.I'm interested in learning about the specific conditions of their den sites that you mention and whether these sites can be artificial created.I have created the wood piles and have alowed most of my property to grow in,I live in rocky woods near a horse farm,and I have a small 1/2 acre pond with plenty of frogs and fish.Why don't I see any large snakes.Is there any else I can do?Seeing that copperhead was thilling,I havent seen a black snake in 40 years.

Try 'Landscape With Reptile' by Thomas Palmer. Concentrating mostly on timber rattlers, his book details the furthest north and east known remaining den site in which both species overwinter. He talks about the conditions which limit their more northern expansion, as well as those that help them survive this far north, including den location and orientation. I doubt that they can be recreated artificially. Den site affinity has been shown to occur with tracking studies. Not sure if they would 'learn' to use a new den even if it were suitable.

Here is a link that might be useful: snakes of NY

Put in a small watergarden, and have lots of weeds and brush around. I have a snake and I think it's attracted to my little pond, the weeds, and being able to live under my deck. I have hostas lining my deck and that gives lots of shelter too.
I'm not sure if I appreciate it living there or not. I love frogs, and I'm afraid they keep him fed. DH is freaking out over it, but it's just another creature that enjoys the habitat here. It probably keeps the mouse population down too.

Thank you patrick nh,for the links and information that you provided.It has really help me get started on my search.Maybe someday I'll see that copperhead again.Catherinet I think the fact that your little pond has attracted some much wildlife is a sign of its success.

I really enjoyed Tom Palmer's book. It's been about 10 years since I read it, but while searching through it for info for this thread on den site orientation, I remembered how enjoyable it was. I'll have to read it again, after I finish the three I'm working on now.
Those copperheads are so beautiful. The babies especially, with their almost dayglow lime green tail tips. My goal someday is to see rattlesnakes in the wild. It probably won't be in the northeast, however. Two trips to CO so far have proven fruitless, although it's not that I seriously went searching. One showed up in our friends' backyard a week before one trip, while the other was in their basement window well two weeks after. If they only knew how lucky they are!
I'm very lucky in that of the 11 species of snakes found in my state, I've got 7 on my property, with one more expected, and another hoped for. I've got one Eastern Milk with several distinguishing markings which I first found as a hatchling in one corner of my garage 5 years ago, where it goes to shed, I've found it again at least once every year since, although not yet this year, but there have been sheds left which may be from her.

I've had success too with attracting red bellies and browns with pieces of carpet left on the ground. I almost never find them otherwise.

Catherinet,Saw the picture of your pond guess,very cool,I'm jealous.

I wish there were more of us that would like to see the return of our venomous snakes, instead of the people that would not only kill them, but anything even slightly resembling one as well. Or any snake for that matter. In my part of southern Illinois there is much in the local history about the presence of rattlers. I guess the destruction/fragmentation of the prairies, combined with the systematic hunting down and destroying of any known den sites by 'do-gooders' were the main reasons you now have to go south to the Shawnee Forest and surrounding areas to find any rattlers. Same pretty well goes for the moccasins and copperheads, although they still have their holdouts. I was both shocked, pleased, and saddened all at the same moment when a neighbor brought me the head of a copperhead he had killed in his Franklin Co. yard. Shocked that it was actually a copperhead and not the usual northern water snake, pleased since this meant there must surely be others, and saddened that I had to document my first local sighting based on a decapitated head rather than seeing such a magnificent reptile living and breathing and threatening no one.
In the years before we had city water, we relied on a small electric pump housed in a wooden structure that sat over two buried concrete tanks. Although the tanks have been sealed and out of use for years now, the pumphouse itself has had many tenants, most of them snakes. THis little structure was built to keep the lines and pump from freezing in the winter, and was complete with insulated walls and a socket for a heatlamp. THere is no longer power running to it, but the insulation and a southern exposure makes this a sure place to find snakes in the milder winter and spring, as well as cooler rainy periods in between. I used to store my dog food and bird seed there, knowing the 5 foot rat snake that called the place home would keep an eye on chipmunks and mice. It was a very docile creature; I don't think I ever recall it striking at me, even when I was checking daily to see how things were going with its skin shedding. I know they can't see that well when their eyes are clouded, but this snake never did get upset. Of course I went in slowly and gave it time to adjust to my presence. I was rewarded with a beautiful shed, retreived while still flexible and "damp", so that I was able to finish turning it completely inside-out. . Every scale is perfectly intact, even the one over the eye.

Good luck with your plans to bring the snakes back...I hope you succeed.

This has been such a refreshing thread. Thanks to all who are working to protect and enhance the wild flora and fauna that has been so decimated.

We don't see many snakes here any more except for the occassional worm snake by the compost pile or under a flower pot, even though we are on three wooded acres. I suspect my neighbors in the adjoining subdivision have done all in their power to eliminate any of those "evil" snakes that they see.

I remember gently discouraging a black snake that thought my back stoop was a nice place to sun. That was in the days when my children were still learning to respect wildlife and I was afraid for the snake! Now I would love to see one there. I hope there is still a healthy population of snakes around, just well hidden in the brush piles we maintain.

This summer, I had several leftover bales of hay (I use them as mulch in my vege beds) that became home to numerous red-bellied snakes and garter snakes of impressive size!

I am going to order a few extra bales next year, just to keep the snakes around the garden. With the way the moles are propagating in my compost pile, I need any help I can get in keeping a predator-prey balance around here!

You should know that neither red-bellied snakes nor garters will help with your mole problem. You need to be trying to attract the constrictors: black rats, Eastern milks and maybe black racers. The mole population on my property is on a population high, and partially as a result, I'm thinking, I've also seen more Eastern milks in the last two years than ever before. We'll see what happens to the milks when the mole population crashes.