Complex sentence: Garter snakes populate a variety of habitats, including forests, woodlands, fields, grasslands, and lawns, but never far away from some form of water, often an adjacent wetland, stream, or pond.
Split into simpler sentences: Garter snakes populate a variety of habitats, including forests, woodlands, fields, grasslands, and lawns. They almost exclusively inhabit areas with some form of water, often an adjacent wetland, stream, or pond.