Six years after Westfield State University students spent a day helping the Massachusetts Division of Wildlife and Fisheries (MassWildlife) build an artificial pool in Southwick for the eastern spadefoot toad—a threatened species here—the project has yielded populous results.
The toad species has resumed breeding, and it’s made the news, garnering coverage from TV and radio outlets.
In 2015, 17 student members of Westfield State University wildlife conversation course, taught by Associate Professor of Environmental Science John McDonald, Ph.D., helped build an artificial vernal pool in the Southwick Wildlife Management Area.
The following spring, McDonald detected breeding of the eastern spadefoot toad species at the only nearby site, just across the Southwick town line in Westfield, where breeding had not been documented in 20 years. MassWildlife representatives collected eggs from the site, moved some to the Southwick pools, and released juvenile spadefoots in the pools. The toads are slow to mature and spend most of their life underground, according to McDonald, and the sandy soils at Southwick made a good potential habitat.
“The biologist in charge of the project had detected a couple surviving juveniles there on spotlight surveys the past few years, but the big test was going to be if any of them survived long enough and returned to the pools to breed,” said McDonald. “We thought it might be five years or so before the first chance at breeding. This year, they bred. It is rewarding when a conversation plan works out like this.”
Check out the news coverage: