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Sign Up to Help Monitor the Toads at Ryder Lake!
As soon as the weather warms up, many of our frogs, toads, and salamanders will emerge from their winter brumination (the amphibian version of ‘hibernation’) and start their trek to their breeding pond. If you enjoy cold walks on rainy nights and you would like to learn how to identify the different amphibians crossing the road, we could use your help!
Every year, we create a contact list of volunteers interested in helping with these amphibian surveys. Would you like to be added to the 2019 list?
Photo by: Sean McCann
We’re looking for volunteers to help with evening amphibian surveys as a component of our Ryder Lake Amphibian Protection Project.
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WHAT TO EXPECT
Volunteers will assist with counting live and dead amphibians along a stretch of Ryder Lake and Elk View roads in Chilliwack, BC. Data collected through these surveys is used to determine the effectiveness of our toad tunnel and associated fencing at reducing road mortality.
Volunteers must be prepared to walk 6 km in cold, dark and wet conditions while searching for amphibians along the road. Surveys will start after dark, and generally take 2-3 hours to complete depending on how many amphibians are out. Weather appropriate gear (rain jacket, rain pants, boots or waterproof shoes, gloves) is required.
HOW TO GET INVOLVED
Surveys cannot be scheduled in advance as they are dependent on having the ‘right’ weather conditions – we can only do these surveys in the rain when the amphibians are migrating. To handle this tricky scheduling, we keep a list of interested volunteers that we contact when it looks like the conditions will be good for a survey (i.e. wet). Sofi will email everyone on her registered volunteer list, requesting help for a specific date and time. The first volunteers who respond will be her helpers for that survey. Usually this e-mail is sent the day before or sometimes even the day of a survey night.
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To sign up for this interesting and challenging experience, please e-mail Sofi@fraservalleyconservancy.ca to be added to the 2019 volunteer contact list.
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If you have any questions please do not hesitate to send Sofi an email at: Sofi@fraservalleyconservancy.ca, or call the office at 604-625-0066.
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