STARS AND STRIPES (Washington, DC) 23 February 08 Road near Kelley Barracks closed for mating toads (Kevin Dougherty)
Darmstadt, Germany: Unless you’re a witch, a herpetologist or a little boy with tortuous leanings, toads and newts often don’t draw much attention.
But that list could include the U.S. military community in Darmstadt, where the annual hop and toddle of thousands of toads and newts near Kelley Barracks has become a rite of spring.
The mating migration is so significant that a primary route onto Kelley will be closed this weekend.
“The fence will go up Monday,” said Amy Sturm, spokeswoman for the U.S. Army Garrison Darmstadt.
More in a moment on that “frog fence.”
The extraordinary steps the military and local community employ to safeguard the amphibians can be traced back to, of all things, a wash rack.
For it is there that water tends to gather.
And where there is standing water the little creatures like to assemble, especially about now, when love springs eternal, amphibian style.
“They mate in our wash rack,” said Eva Maldonado, a longtime garrison spokeswoman.
“This whole thing started when they built the wash rack.”
This weekend, with temperatures expected to reach 60 degrees Fahrenheit, there is concern the migration could start early, said Brigitte Martin, a local environmentalist. Usually the rush is on in March and April.
“The weather is so warm right now,” Martin said. “The toads may be running.”
For more than a decade, Martin and a team of volunteers have patrolled a strip of road that borders the west side of Kelley Barracks.
Immediately on the other side of the fence is the wash rack.
While most love-seeking amphibians cross the two-lane road after dusk, some just can’t wait.
Several years ago someone had the bright idea of erecting a shin-high fence to keep the critters at bay.
Contraptions were added to funnel the amorous amphibians into receptacles, where they were gathered and transported to a newly dug pond in the nearby woods.
“Everybody calls them frogs,” Sturm said, “but they are toads and newts.”
Typically, the number of road warriors has been several thousand, though that number has been dropping as more and more are pointed toward the pond.
With the U.S. military pulling out of Darmstadt this year, Martin worries that she and her charges will have to deal with some faceless bureaucrat from here on out.
“They are so far away,” Martin said.
And when nature calls, nature calls, no matter if you’re an amphibian.
Road near Kelley Barracks closed for mating toads