Community News

The things you find while toading. A genuine ‘toadstool’! Image: Scott Lenton

CVCIA Landcare ramps up effort and bags 10,000 cane toads

Friday night’s monthly check for cane toads at the Yamba Golf Course resulted in the 10,000 cane toad barrier being reached for the twenty three Friday night toading outings held during the current season after 21 volunteers, including two newcomers, who enthusiastically braved the rain returned with 863 toads dominated by nearly 500 juveniles of the species. Despite increased efforts to control the results of toad breeding activity at the golf course this season there remain plenty of offspring to collect, however the indications are that the numbers of adult toads are in decline, and with continued energy from the CVCIA volunteers it is hoped that trend will continue. Recent rain over the last week has not resulted in any detections of new breeding activity, however that does not mean it is not happening elsewhere and our volunteers as well as landowners are reminded to keep an eye on dams, standing water, ponds and open drains containing freshwater for signs of toad spawn (long strings of eggs that do not float and are typically wrapped around sticks or vegetation under the water) or toad tadpoles, remove any spawn as soon as it is found and report tadpoles to enable positive and correct identification before action is taken to remove them. Correct identification of toads, toad tadpoles and toad spawn is a high priority for CVCIA Landcare as the last thing we want is for native frog species to be unintentionally impacted and the community can make contact with the Landcare Group or find information on the CVCIA Landcare Facebook page or website, www.cvcia.org.au, to clarify what they have found. With two months of the cane toading season remaining CVCIA Landcare is super keen to have more helpers to remove as many toads as possible from the lower Clarence environment and rural lands before the cooler weather sends toads into hiding to build on the fantastic results achieved through massive combined efforts by volunteers, toading contractors and landowners since last September. The simple fact is that the more effort that is applied in known cane toad territory the more toads that are collected and the less toads that are left to breed and repopulate this pest species. CVCIA Landcare will be coordinating its 24th Friday night toading outing in the town of Maclean this Friday night with interested persons requested to meet at 7.30-7.45pm in the northern car park next to the Maclean Sports Centre at Wherrett Park. The next new volunteer will be the 100th individual to participate in this growing and enjoyable community activity and anyone wanting to join in is reminded that children must be accompanied by an adult and all persons must wear closed-in, sturdy shoes, bring a good torch/headlamp and if you have a lidded, 10-15L bucket one of those as well with any enquiries to Scott on 0438 430 234.  
A 2-year old adult female toad with some fringe-benefits of checking for cane toads at the golf course. Although it is close to Easter! Image: Glad Smith