June 6, 2026 - West Virginia Outdoors with Chris Lawrence

Chris Lawrence opens with news that Natural Resources Commissioner Lauren Winans has resigned her seat to join the Morrissey administration, leaving District 3 open for a gubernatorial appointment. Tournament director Sean Douglas then joins from the water to preview the 43rd annual West Virginia Bass Festival at St. Mary's — the state's most prestigious bass tournament with a $20,000 top payout — covering registration deadlines, weigh-in times, and the public's standing invitation to watch at Riverfront Park. Retired DNR biologist and longtime snake researcher Frank Jernasic closes the show with a deep conversation on timber rattlesnakes at Cooper's Rock, where he has documented over 1,600 encounters in 10 years, covering rattlesnake diet, travel range, live birth, growth rate, and common myths including cottonmouths in West Virginia. Listener questions cover black snake varieties, tree-climbing behavior, and how to tell a water snake from a venomous species.