r/herping

Hi!!
For Context: I am a Wildlife and Fisheries Major focused in Mammalogy, so I'm a bit out of my element here. I've owned a pet turtle for around 10 years, and have handled various reptiles/amphibians etc, both wild and pets, so I am comfortable in that regard.

I work at a camp during the summer in Northeast PA, and I am primarily focused in our Nature Center, which has both native and nonnative herps in order to educate children anywhere from 7 to 16. We also have a "foraging" activity, which is mostly herping, however the past summer I ran into the issue of not finding anything other than Spring Peepers or American toads, and the occasional Green Frog in our large pond, much to the disappointment of the campers.

I'd like to learn a bit more about optimal areas, times, weather, etc. for herps (snakes, frogs, turtles, amphibians, LITERALLY ANYTHING!!), or how/where to encourage more frequent visits. I've read a bit about laying down tin sheets or logs, but as I said, I'm very out of my element here. I'm more used to camera trapping and tracking black bears and deer, so any advice, even the most basic, would be so helpful. We have a Lake Erie waterfront, a large pond/manmade lake waterfront, a decent sized creek, and scattered wetlands in the temperate forests on the property, if that helps at all.

I have a list of species from the 2013 PA herp survey found in our specific county (from https://www.paherps.com/), and I'm quite confident in my ID abilities, its just FINDING them that's the problem. In my 12ish years of experience attending/working at this camp, I've mostly seen garter snakes, the occasional milk snake, a decent number of frog/toad species (which I mostly HEAR rather than see), and snapping turtles.

Getting kids involved and curious about the natural world rather than fearful of it is one of my biggest passions, so any advice in this regard would help!! Thanks!!

Bagging is sadly rife in my small community with people keeping individuals for multiple days and sometimes weeks in order to share rare finds. I think it is easy for people who claim they care deeply about wildlife to just shrug this off and say its no problem because the snake seems fine. How troublesome is this for the snake? Any literature to prove it. I dont like being such a spoil sport and understand when people want to share finds but I just find people that do this and claim to deeply care about wildlife and the ecosystem wholly hypocritical.

I’m planning on trying to go herping more this summer, but am new to the hobby. What are good places or habitats to look into for potential herping spots? Also, if you know any good places in West Virginia’s eastern panhandle, that would be greatly appreciated!