We live on the San Jacinto River and have plenty of snakes. There are usually lots of ribbon garter snakes around the house, and copperheads in the bark mulch next to the fence. Every summer we have at least one copperhead in the pool; we always check the skimmers before getting in. My husband kills the copperheads; sorry but to me the only good (poisonous) snake is a dead snake. We pretty much leave the garters alone, though. At my MIL's, there's a big ole' black snake in her barn. They just leave him alone because he keeps the rat/mouse population down in there.
We don't kill them but most people do and I can understand. They have seen 5 snakes here on our road this past week. Thye are running out of places to go people are clearing their property. I'm more afraid of the tics than I am the snakes, they can be more dangerous.