Page 14 - Wildlife News August 2019

A wilder future

vital statistics Space for toads

£430m Toad sign: Linda Pitkin/2020VISION, toad: sam hobson

The estimated value of
services by pollinating
insects for agriculture

1km

Most bumblebee workers forage
within one kilometre of their nest

80% In early spring, toads migrate
back to their breeding ponds.
The increase But each year, an estimated 20
in road traffic tonnes of unlucky toads never
between 1980
and 2005 make it, due to roads.

63% Live no longer in fragments, eh? A hard a swift and effective counter-blast to the
The increase thing to achieve when many areas of our fragmentation of our countryside.
in area treated countryside have been split down the
with pesticides middle with roads. There’s a classic example Yet it’s only the beginning. In an ideal
between 1990 in Herefordshire, where a road cuts off an world there would be no need for toad
and 2016 area of woodland from Bodenham Lake. patrols. And so work is underway to make
the landscape around the lake better for
2km And that’s not good news for toads. toads. Plans include making places where
Toads can travel They hibernate in the woods and in spring toads can hibernate without needing to
two kilometres they travel down to the lake to get on with cross the road to do so.
to reach their the crucial business of mating, spawning
breeding ponds and making more toads. Toads are not swift Creating new ponds for toads
and sure crossers of roads. It’s ironic: Mr
4 in 5 Four out of five Toad in The Wind in the Willows is the great One of the problems toads suffer from
rivers in England mad driver of fiction, but in practice toads is the loss of the old farm ponds. On the
and Wales fail are the constant road casualties of Mr and wooded side of the road, farmers are being
to achieve ‘good Mrs Human. encouraged to install new ponds, so that
ecological status’ toads will be able to mate and spawn –
Herefordshire Wildlife Trust has again without crossing the road. This helps
1–2km coordinated a team of lollipop people to improve the quality of the connecting
for toads: out there on spring nights with landscape.
The distance most water voles travel to buckets and torches as toads, mad with
find food, shelter and mates desire, make their way to the lake. In its More ponds: part of a gentler and
first year, the team helped 200 toads to the softer landscape that joins up the best
Join our campaign for a other side. Last year, the score was 1,300 places and so brings the wider countryside
Wilder Future and help us – not because they’re better at catching back to life. It’s good for
put nature into recovery toads but because, thanks to their efforts in wildlife and good for
bbowt.org.uk/wilder-future previous years, there are now more toads humans. A wilder
needing to cross. countryside is a better
place for us all,
As a simple example of connectivity in reconnecting us
action it could hardly be bettered. Toads with nature
have declined by 70% since 1985, due and making
to a complex combination of reasons. our lives
But saving them from being run over is richer.

14 Wildlife news / August 2019