KTVZ (Bend, Oregon) 14 July 07 Sunriver invasion imminent: We 'toad' you so (Keisha Burns)
Sunriver: It's an imminent invasion to hop about - well, at least it is for thousands of tiny Western toads.
But why did the toad cross the road?
"To get to the other side," one youngster said.
That would be the case in a joke punchline or fairy tale, but along the west shore of Lake Aspen in Sunriver, countless numbers of tiny toads are taking off to start life as an adult.
Along the shore, you can find clusters of dozens to hundreds of toads.
Sue Hinton, manager of the Sunriver Nature Center, said Western toads breed mostly in the spring and eventually migrate away from their natural pond, not returning to the water until the age of 4.
"We have numerous, hundreds, thousands of baby toads that are leaving Aspen to start their adulthood, living in the meadows or forest," she said.
And to prepare for this invasion, the Nature Center is recruiting kids to help move toads safely across the bicycle paths near the center, to avoid squashing the tiny creatures.
Hinton said the toads must be handled with care: "One of the things toads and frogs don't really have (are) ribs, so you have to be careful when you handle them, especially small little toads, that you don't squash them."
Employee Patrick Hall said it's not easy catching the toads.
"It take some patience because you don't know what day it's going to come," he said. "So you have to be prepared all week."
Although no one knows what the final signal will be that starts the migration, staff members at the nature center are waiting for what will likely be the resort community's largest toad emergence in 14 years.
"The shoreline looks like the toads are preparing an attack on the Nature Center," reports Jay Bowerman, principal researcher at the center. "They are dispersed along nearly a quarter mile of shore in clusters of dozens to hundreds. In some places they completely cover the ground for a foot or more up from the edge of the water, with more continually joining the force."
Western Toads breed collectively in the spring, and their tadpoles gather in schools of thousands. Once they turn into little toadlets, they come ashore and migrate away from their natural pond, and don't return to the water until they reach maturity at about the age of four.
In recent years, emergences of a few thousand toadlets have been focused in small areas of the lake, with the toads coming onto the land along fairly short stretches of the shore. This year is different in that the gathering hordes are spread along the whole length of the west side of the 6-acre lake.
An emergence last year resulted in hundreds of toadlets marching across the Nature Center parking lot one evening following a summer shower. Fortunately for the toads, that evening's cloudy weather cancelled the evening program. Observatory manager Bob Grossfeld said that the numbers of toads that invaded the parking lot that night was so great that he would have had to shut down the evening astronomy program to prevent cars from squashing the toads.
This year, the Nature Center staff is gearing up for the expected invasion. It has also readied a gas-powered leaf blower to try to safely move the tiny toads before evening programs bring a flood of cars to the parking lot. The intent is to apply air directly to the pavement (not to the toadlets) to create a disturbance which the small amphibians will avoid by moving off the paved area. It remains to be seen how effective a leaf-blower will be in completing this task.
According to Nature Center staff who have been monitoring the gathering toadlets, the "attack" appears imminent, but no one knows what the final signal will be that starts the migration. Rain is a likely factor in stimulating migration. With possible showers forecast for Sunday, the people around the Nature Center are waiting nervously.
Anyone interested in helping with the Nature Center's toad patrol should check in with the Nature Center reception desk or call 593-4394. The Nature Center is open daily, 9am - 5pm followed by an Observatory program Tuesdays through Sundays, 9pm -11pm.
Sunriver invasion imminent: We 'toad' you so

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