Tiny western toads put economic, environmental squeeze on village of Nakusp
VICTORIA — A migration of toads described as a croaking, moving carpet and one of the world’s environmental wonders is dividing a southeastern British Columbia village over forestry jobs and the protection of tiny amphibians.
The western toad migration near the Village of Nakusp attracts tourists every summer to the Toad Festival at Summit Lake, where people fill buckets with the toads and carry them safely across Highway 6 to forest habitat.
More than a million brown toads migrate at once, moving en mass from the lake across the highway to forested habitat where they live for four or five years before returning to the lake to breed.
The B.C. government spent almost $200,000 to build a toad tunnel underneath the highway, which is used by the toads, but many take the overland route and risk death on the highway.