Community Corner

Toad Detour Adopted

The project that aims to protect migrating toads, was adopted by the Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education earlier this month.

The Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education has officially adopted the Toad Detour, a release from the ceter stated.

The Toad Detour is "a well established volunteer project to protect toads as they migrate to and from the Roxborough Reservoir each spring," the release continued, adding that adoption comes after Toad Detour Director Lisa Levinson announced that she was relocating to California. 

The announcement was made Dec. 10 in conjunction with the first public screening of the Toad Detour Documentary, a film by Burgess Coffield profiling the project’s history and success. After the screening, Levinson presented the Schuylkill Center with a Certificate of Appreciation on behalf of the Toad Detour. 

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The DETOUR Project (Detour for Emerging Toads Of Upper Roxborough) is an effort to protect toads as they migrate to and from their breeding ground each year and to raise public awareness about the migration.

“It’s only natural that the Center adopts both the toads and the Detour Project,”  Mike Weilbacher, the Schuylkill Center’s Executive Director, said in the release.  “After all, the toads are hopping out of our forests to mate in the reservoir, and their young are leaving the reservoir to take up residency in our forests." 

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Each spring, between mid-March and late-April, hundreds of toads migrate from the forest at the SCEE toward the Roxborough Reservoir to mate. Before the Toad Detour, the local toad population was steadily decreasing due to traffic fatalities, as the toads crossed Hagy’s Mill and Port Royal roads at night. With community support, Toad Detour volunteers now man barricades and erect signs at key toad crossing areas to detour oncoming traffic towards alternate routes.

The Schuylkill Center’s Claire Morgan will be in charge of volunteers for this spring’s migration. “I look forward to working with all the great volunteers that really make this project the success it is,” says Morgan.  She invites all interested volunteers, both new and experienced, to contact her at cmorgan@schuylkillcenter.org or 215-482-7300 x127. Volunteers are needed to place barricades and signs, distribute Toad Migration leaflets to drivers, count migrating toads, and help toads safely cross the road.

 

 

 

(L-R) Filmmaker Burgess Coffield, Schuylkill Center Volunteer Coordinator Claire Morgan, Toad Detour Founder Lisa Levinson, Schuykill Center Ex. Director Mike Weilbacher.  Photo credit:  Asher Coffield.


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