Our News
2025 results for the Toad Patrol - it's been a bumper year!
It has been a very good year for our rescues of frogs, toads and newts, even better than 2024, with 2782 animals carefully transported from the lethal Lordshill and Woodhill Road crossings to the safety of their breeding ponds. The toad fence was also great, adding another 306 caught in the buckets. For the latest figures species by species go to our Toad crossing reports for 2025
There was a good number of female toads this year. We only have a small population of frogs - their numbers plummeted in 2023/4, on the Woodhill crossing, so it was very nice to see them back up this year.
​
A great THANK YOU to everyone for their help and hard work in making this wonderful success possible.
​
Regena has produced a very informative Q&A sheet with everything you need to know about the toad migration and the Toad Patrol - click here to read it.
Woodland Working Party
A fun and rewarding day was had on 11th October by an extremely merry band of villagers who made up our first SGEG Woodland Working Party. Previously working parties have planted bulbs, pulled Himalayan balsam and planted and watered trees and hedges but this was a first.
Together we cleared holly, brambles and other undergrowth by the footpath in the Lords Hill area and used the material to make a wonderful dead hedge. This may not sound very wonderful but in fact it is. As the RSPB says 'a dead hedge is a wonderful habitat that’s full of life. Dead hedges provide hiding places and nesting habitats for all sorts of creatures, as well as food for insects’. The hedge can be added to at any time. The cleared area is now much more accessible and this will help with biodiversity too by allowing more light to reach the ground
Jon and Rob from WEAG taught us our new skills, like coppicing and making stakes, and even high wire walking and we are very grateful to them for their expertise, which they have put to good effect in Healy’s Wood, in Wonersh. We really enjoyed working together, across the Parish. Thanks also to Alison and Katie for the tea and biscuits.
It was interesting to see what a fabulous array of tools we managed to come up with between us, some had not been used for a while and some were very up to date. We plan to do more woodland work.
If you would like to be involved another time please let us know at info@shamleygreenenvironment.co.uk
There are sure to be plenty of opportunities.
Recognition for Regena!
Fantastic news! Our own Toad Patrol leader and SGEG member Regena Coult has won the 'Green' category in this year's #BBC #CommunityHeroes Award for her hours and hours and years and years of commitment to our local amphibians.
She has underatken the mammoth task of creating habitat for them by instigating the planting of a new hedge on Woodhill Manor land, and every year she coordinates a Toad Patrol in Spring when they migrate across roads to their breeding ponds. Shamley Green is a hot-spot for toads, frogs and newts.
Congratulations Regena from all the toad patrol volunteers and the wider community.
