BOSTON - Grappling with blowback over their plan to save the state's declining rattlesnake population by placing the venomous reptiles on a Quabbin Reservoir island, Massachusetts environmental officials at one point considered suspending the proposal.



The federally funded plan calls for "head starting" baby timber rattlesnakes inside a Rhode Island zoo and then gradually placing them over several years on Mt. Zion, an isolated island that would protect the endangered species that numbers at around 200 in the Bay State.



News of the proposal first broke in January, and the outcry from area residents and others caused lawmakers, including state Sens. Anne Gobi of Spencer and Eric Lesser of Longmeadow, to hold a hearing in Athol on May 10.



In the days leading up to the hearing, state officials traded emails over what their testimony should say. MassLive.com obtained the emails through a public records request.



The emails show Gov. Charlie Baker's energy and environment chief, Matt Beaton, planned to announce a suspension at the hearing and express regret for the way the issue was handled.



"While I stand behind the science in the proposed plan, what I do not support was the limited public engagement," Beaton had planned to say, according to the draft testimony. "As a result, I am announcing the suspension of our plan to relocate any timber rattlesnakes to Mount Zion Island."



The draft testimony continued: "This suspension will provide us with the opportunity necessary to engage with members of this committee, the public and environmental stakeholders. While the science in the plan is sound, an open and transparent dialogue must exist."



For other state environmental officials who were to follow Beaton in appearing in front of the committee, draft sections for what they were going to say included headers stating "Show of Humility" for each of them. The wording of Beaton's apology was also strengthened during the drafting process.



The evening before the Athol hearing, Alexandra Cahill, Beaton's chief of staff, said she had spoken with Fish and Game Commissioner George Peterson and they would not be announcing a suspension.



"We will instead be announcing that we will conduct further public outreach and will convene a working group to better engage with stakeholders," she wrote, attaching the final draft of the testimony. "If there is still concern following this engagement, we will explore alternative options."



Massachusetts official apologizes over Rattlesnake Island plan



The Baker administration inherited the proposal from the previous administration under Gov. Deval Patrick.



Peter Lorenz, a Beaton spokesman, told MassLive.com the emails demonstrate officials were engaged in a fluid discussion of all the options available to the agencies within the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs. The options were discussed while the office was attempting to balance preservation of an endangered species and public safety, he said.



A top Baker adviser had also weighed in, according to the emails obtained by MassLive.com. The Friday before the hearing, Tim Buckley offered some suggestions.



Beaton should acknowledge "error in initial public discovery of the project - never intention to have media outlets get the scoop," Buckley wrote in an email sent to Beaton, Cahill and Steven Kadish, Baker's chief of staff.



Beaton should also acknowledge "the concerns such a project raise in public due to stigma of snakes...Acknowledge the concerns such a project raises in public due to location in quabbin - acknowledge the region feels neglected/under served historically," he added.



New rounds of public input and hearings should also be announced, while people should also be reminded about the hearings that have already taken place and there's "no chance" of human interaction due to the isolated location of the island, Buckley wrote.



Sen. Lesser, who had called for delaying the implementation of the plan until area residents get some questions answered, said suspending the proposal didn't come in any discussions with administration officials. When lawmakers first called for a freezing of the proposal, environmental officials had said any effort to introduce a small population of snakes would not begin until spring 2017 at the earliest.





Sen. Eric Lesser

"It's worth pointing out a lot of frustration and concern by constituents and a lot of time could have been saved by being proactively transparent from the beginning," Lesser said in a phone interview with MassLive.com this week. "If they had committed to the freeze or the reset much earlier in the process it would've prevented the need to have the hearing, to file the legislation and to take all of those subsequent steps."



As for them discussing at one point a suspension, Lesser said, "I'm glad to see this is coming out and we're learning even within the administration there were deliberations about this."



Lesser added that he was gratified by the apology from officials on May 10 and their commitment to a working group. But he said he is still waiting to hear more about the working group.



"The proof will be in the actual implementation, not in the promises made," he said. "So we're still waiting on that."