A project to try to breed a colony of rattlesnakes on a remote island in the largest water reservoir in Massachusetts has been shelved.
The vote Wednesday by the state Fisheries and Wildlife Board to suspend the project came almost a year after the disclosure of the plan caused a public uproar in the rural towns surrounding the Quabbin Reservoir.
At a hearing last year, MassWildlife assistant director Tom French defended the plan to put endangered timber rattlesnakes on Mount Zion.
" We can say with confidence that there is little to no risk to the public posed by this project," French stated.
Its estimated there are only about 200 of the snakes left in Massachusetts with small populations in the Holyoke Range and the southern Berkshires.
