Rocky outcroppings and logs strewn on the forest floor - these are areas most people wouldn't venture near in snake-infested habitat.
Snake specialist William "Bill" Fox Munroe of Millville considers such terrain his workspace.
Munroe is contracted by Chief Gathering, a pipeline subsidiary of Marcellus gas well drillers Chief Oil & Gas.
His job may sound simple yet it is dangerous: Prevent human and snake interaction as the pipe crew works its way through about 10 miles of Salladasburg Borough and the townships of Mifflin and Anthony.
But Munroe approaches his responsibility of snake surveillance, capture and release with professionalism.
"It's very specialized in that he takes a lot of caution to relocate the snakes out of our area," said Chief Oil & Gas spokeswoman Kristi Gittins.
Munroe, a herpetological biologist, received a scientific collector's permit from the state Fish and Boat Commission.
"As these pipeline projects are going through, I'm onsite in the (work) area where timber rattlesnakes have been assessed to be and where they're proven to be," he said.
Munroe's work is both progressive and reactive.
He often scans the territory ahead of gas workers, making sure the land is clear of snakes.
Sometimes he gets called to a particular area, especially if someone sees a snake they feel needs to be removed from a trench.
He used both tactics while working for Dominion Transmission as an 84-mile pipeline was stretched from Huntingdon County to the Renovo area from 2007-09.
Under Munroe's watch, he said, no workers from Dominion or other companies were bitten.
Other jobs for Munroe in the past decade or so have included rattlesnake radio tracking implantation around the Army Fort Indiantown Gap near Lebanon and studying the effect of commercial logging on rattlers around Lycoming County.
From his 50 years of studying snakes, which began as a teen growing up in Berks County, Munroe has learned where snakes like to linger.
When the Chief Gathering laborers work their way through the job site, Munroe said he'll particularly be looking for rocks and logs.
Rattlesnakes tend to bask on the rocks and look for their favorite food, rodents, under felled timber.
When Munroe finds a venomous snake, he plans to catch it and release it at least 200 meters from pipeline corridor.
Once its safely released in a new area, Munroe said it's unlikely to return to where it's found.
He said there's only about a 10 percent chance it will return.
Munroe described the process of catching rattlesnakes, which he used the past three years for Dominion.
His staple tools are 2-foot-long tongs and a bucket with a nylon herpetological bag inside.
The bag, which stretches about 4 feet long, is made of a special tatter-proof fiber Munroe said is similar to what comprises a parachute.
Its edges are wrapped around the open bucket top as Munroe uses the tongs to grip the snake.
Once grasped, the snake is placed in the bagged bucket, and Munroe quickly uses the tongs to tie the top of the bag closed before the snake escapes.
Munroe rather would humanely capture snakes himself than have unorganized mobs seek and destroy them.
He believes they've been unfairly persecuted, especially from occurrences when people have resorted to using shotguns to hunt them down and kill them.
His attraction to snakes helped him realize they should be respected but not feared.
Years after being born in 1941 - which he said is a "snake" year on the Chinese calendar - he simply felt a natural pull toward the creatures.
"It's just always been a passion," Munroe said. "It was something internal."
When Munroe saw ways snakes were unjustly treated, he decided he wanted to help them.
Humans with the attitude that "the only good snake is a dead one" have the wrong idea, according to Munroe.
He was glad to see state legislation passed three years ago that places more stringent restrictions for snakes that are caught.
With the exception of organized hunts, snake stalkers only may catch and keep one timber rattlesnake and one northern copperhead during the mid-June through late July season each year.
The rattlesnakes caught must be at least 42 inches long, which Munroe said helps assure species preservation.
Females typically don't get that long, according to Munroe.
Munroe will be using his special permit to capture all the venomous snakes he comes across throughout the year, for the safety of the workers and the snakes themselves.
