Pa. bike path moved to accommodate endangered spadefoot toad

     Researcher David Scott holds a handful of spadefoot toads from a collection bucket at Rainbow Bay, Friday, April 1, 2005, at Savannah River Ecology Lab in New Ellenton, S.C. (Mary Ann Chastain/AP Photo)

    Researcher David Scott holds a handful of spadefoot toads from a collection bucket at Rainbow Bay, Friday, April 1, 2005, at Savannah River Ecology Lab in New Ellenton, S.C. (Mary Ann Chastain/AP Photo)

    Why did the spadefoot toad have to cross the road?

    Answer: It won’t have to now that a bicycle path in central Pennsylvania is being redesigned to accommodate the endangered amphibian.

     

     

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    The Centre Daily Times reports officials in Patton Township will move about 500 feet of the planned path so it doesn’t go through the toad’s wetland habitat.

    The Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission considers the toad endangered and requested the design change.

    The township initially planned for the path to parallel a rural road, but that took the path through the wetland area. Designers hoped to install a trench drain that the toads could hop through to avoid the path, but the state Department of Environmental Protection says that would still disturb the wetland.

    So now the township is spending $4,800 more to redirect the path.

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