Toads hit the road at Ryder Lake

“Slow. People and Toads on Road” said the yellow sign on the corner of Ryder Lake Road and Elk View Road. Volunteers with orange and yellow construction vests and blue gloves slowly walked along the winding road, looking at their feet. They carried beach pails with little plastic shovels, empty margarine containers, and ice cream buckets.

Cars slowed down, and as they passed, passengers stared. Some people even pulled over, got out, and helped.

“It’s a migration,” explained Jan Vissers, the director of the Fraser Valley Conservancy.

Thousands, maybe even millions of baby toadlets, Vissers estimated, attempted to migrate across Ryder Lake Road and Elk View Road on Tuesday morning.

“It’s just crawling,” said Vissers referring to the ground which appeared to be moving. In reality it was hopping. Rosebud-sized Western Toads were trying to find their way from Hornby Lake to the forest across the street.

The toadlets migrated later then expected this year, which resulted in the cancellation of the toad rescue that had been planned for last weekend.

“We had about 300 volunteers for the weekend,” said Zoey Slater, a biologist who organized the event. “We had people call and say the toads were on the move, so I sent out an email late at night. Today we had about 30 people show up at the very last minute.

“They have some sort of cues to tell them to start migrating, but we don’t know what it is,” said Slater. “It’s just an innate thing that they know. Maybe it was the cool spring that set them back.”

Vissers tip-toed through the grass, clapping loudly to send the toadlets in the right direction.

“I’m frog herding,” he said.

The rest of the volunteers treaded lightly as they tried to collect as many toadlets as they could, keeping a tally as they worked.

“One-hundred-ninty-seven, 198, 199, 200,” counted two young girls that were together putting their findings into a large bucket.

“They’re really cute,” said volunteer Eden Toth. “It’s a real sense of accomplishment to set them free.”

“I like setting them free,” agreed Kayle Gorman.

Overall, the two girls collected 1,000 toads between themselves from 9 a.m to 1 p.m.

While thousands of toads will attempt to cross the road, not many of them will make it.

“Ninety-nine per cent of them don’t survive,” said Slater.

Although the mortality rate sounds high, Vissers said that it is a good thing. Otherwise, he said, “we’d be neck-deep in frogs.

“But with the traffic and busy streets, we’re making it difficult for them to cross. Just getting across that hot road, it's very hot on a day like today, it cooks them before they can even make it.”

Not only the toadlets are squished, but so are the adults, which causes concern. If a female is hit then she cannot breed, which means thousands of eggs won’t be laid.

“They are explosive breeders,” said Slater. “They have thousands of eggs all at once, and when the eggs all hatch there are thousands of toadlets crossing the road. But females only breed once or twice in their lifetime.”

While the high mortality rate is on one hand a good thing, Vissers explained how important the Western Toad is to the circle of life.

“There would be far more mosquitos if they weren’t around. The less amphibians the more insects,” said Vissers. “Frogs eat a lot of the larva that turns into mosquitos. Everything is connected to everything else. They are a very important part in the chain of life, which we tend to forget, and we are a part of that chain.”

The toad rescue, which received a grant from the Fraser Valley Conservancy, is meant to not only help the toadlets cross the road safely, but also bring awareness to the community that such an important migration is taking place.

“We want to bring it to people's attention that this is an issue,” said Slater. “We really want amphibian tunnels to avoid the toadlets being run over. We’re trying to create awareness and show that there is a need for this.”

Although not as many toadlets were saved as they had hoped, Slater was still happy with the results of the day.

“We’ve saved some, and that’s gotta be worth something,” she said.

awray@theprogress.com