New barrier takes shape to prevent toads crossing

A NEW permanent barrier is being installed to stop toads from crossing a busy road on the outskirts of Henley.

Volunteers with the Henley Toad Patrol are putting up 250m of plastic fencing to halt the amphibians so that they can then be carried across the busy A4155 Marlow Road during their annual migration period.

The barrier is made up of panels, each 1m long, which had been gifted by ACO, a surface water management company that also produces a range of wildlife refuges such as tunnels, gully ladders and wildlife kerbs.

It adjoins a 100m barrier that the Bedfordshire-based company installed on the site in the Eighties and will replace a temporary plastic barrier volunteers have to put up and take down each year.

The Toad Patrol has been running for more than 25 years and last year helped a record 11,500 toads, 464 frogs and 225 newts.

Each evening from February to April, patrol members check the barrier which lines the road running through the Culden Faw Estate, next to the Henley Showground. They carefully collect any amphibians and carry them across the road to their spawning pond on land near the Henley Business School.

Volunteers from the toad patrol and ACO have been working together to install the barrier starting since December and the project is now halfway to completion.

The fencing is installed by digging it into the ground, with posts screwed into each panel for support.

Civil engineer Terry Wilkinson was one of a number of ACO staff members who were helping to install the barrier. He said that the site was home to one of the first toad tunnels in the country.

“We have a bit of a long-standing history on the site,” he said. “There are a couple of tunnels here and the original fencing was all put in around 1987.

“Professor John Sumpter, a member of the Toad Patrol, got in contact with us to say they were keen to extend the fencing and our senior managers agreed to provide 250m.

“Every year before the migration period they come and put the temporary fencing up but now it can stay up all year round and they are able to extend the fencing further.

“I think it’s the largest monitored toad population in the country and, because we’ve got so many toads, there is a benefit in extending the fence to prevent as many as possible from getting on to the road.”

Mr Wilkinson explained that the barrier’s shape is designed to prevent toads from reaching the busy roadbut the curved top of the panels allows them to return from the spawning ponds and climb back into the woods.

He added: “I’ve been in the company for about 10 years and wildlife is an area I’m very passionate about. It’s really nice to be able to come and see it on a site like this.”

Prof Sumpter, a biologist and environmental science lecturer who lives in Southend, has been helping the toads cross the road since he first moved to the area in 1998.

He hopes that the new barrier will be much sturdier than the temporary one volunteers had been using, which was made of plastic sheeting. Prof Sumpter said: “Previously we had to put up a temporary barrier at the end of January or the start of February.

“It was a bit unsightly and sometimes it could be blown down in strong winds. We have found it in the woods and once across the road.

“So this new barrier should last for decades. The original, which was put in around 1987, is still there and still working fine. So I would hope that this will last us a long, long time.

“It’s going to be 350m in total. We will go right from Benhams Lane, all the way across the wood and just on the edge of the Henley Showground and because the majority of the toads spend their lives in this wood, it will intersect the vast majority of the toads.”

Each year, Prof Sumpter collects and analyses data from the volunteers’ findings. He described a repeat of last year’s record number of amphibians as unlikely.

Prof Sumpter said: “Here the population is definitely holding up and if anything it might be increasing but it's difficult to know because it does go up and down.

“Last year was the best year in 30 years with 11,000 adult toads, which is a huge number. About eight years earlier we had 2,500.

“So, it goes up and down and you have to be careful about not getting over depressed if it’s not a great number. I mean, the chances of
getting 11,000 again this year are probably quite slim. The average over nearly 30 years is about 5,500 but that is still a lot of toads.”

Toads migrate in the evenings under the cover of darkness and when the temperature rises above approximately 8C. If it is raining, volunteers can expect to find nearly double or even triple the number of toads.

Last year, the Henley Toad Patrol celebrated its 25th anniversary and was recognised at the Proud of Bucks awards, hosted by the South West and North West Chilterns Community boards, where it received a commendation for Best Community Group.

Nicola Taylor, of Makins Road, has been volunteering with the toad patrol for about 10 years. She said she was encouraged to join the group by one of its organisers, Angelina Jones, with whom she went to Gillotts School in Henley.

Ms Taylor said: “My grandparents lived in Marlow when I was tiny and I used to come along the road and see all the squashed amphibians — it was quite revolting.

“I also knew Angelina from school, so I said, ‘Yeah, I’ll come along and come and help’. You just get swept away with the loveliness of saving them. They are lovely little creatures. They are really cute, really friendly, really gentle.

“The frogs are bouncier and the newts are always quite exciting because you don’t see newts that often.”

Ms Taylor, who works as a baker, said that she had also persuaded her daughter Victoria, 24, to come along and help out.

Jane Bosley, who lives in Valley Road and works in asset management, said she found the volunteer work therapeutic.

She said: “I had been driving along this road, and I had seen the signs and people out and about. Then I read the article in the Standard and thought, ‘Yeah, why not?’

“It’s quite peaceful and therapeutic and it takes me out of my busy mind sometimes. It’s nice to know I’m helping in some way.”