A ray of hope for the upward advancement of agriculture in Taiwan, China
On the evening of October 24, together with friends from Wilderness and a family from Singapore, I headed to the Hengshan Dashanbei area to take part in the frog protection effort of the Society of Wilderness - helping frogs cross the road.
By the time we arrived around 5:30, it was already dark, and a light rain had begun to fall in the mountains. The frog protection team made up of local residents was already patrolling back and forth along the rural road.
At the damp, chilly intersection, a woman sat by the roadside, recording the license plate numbers of vehicles entering the area that day, along with the species and numbers of frogs the volunteers found.
On the ever-darkening mountain road, about 5 to 6 local residents and volunteers walked back and forth, their faint flashlight beams sweeping left and right, standing out sharply against the darkness of the land.
Every October is the breeding season for the Sauter's frog (shown below), the main frog species in the Dashanbei area. But after the rural road was opened, many of these frogs, preparing to travel from the mountains to the streams by the roadside to mate and lay eggs, tragically died under passing wheels.
Moreover, because the streams were channelized by the government, the towering concrete embankments often made it extremely difficult for newly hatched young frogs to return to life in the mountains, so the local frog population grew smaller and smaller
To address this, Wilderness volunteers launched the frog protection effort. From 6 to 8 pm in October, the peak breeding period for the frogs, volunteers organized by Wilderness patrolled back and forth, and whenever a car approached, they quickly scooped up any frogs they spotted with dip nets to keep them from being crushed by the wheels. Then they placed the frogs into the streams to breed.
In the early days, Wilderness volunteers carried out the frog protection effort themselves. But over the long term, most of the volunteers, who still had day jobs, could not bear the fatigue and workload. Only later did the local community gradually take over the frog protection work, with Wilderness raising funds to support it.
Wilderness volunteer Mango greeted the village chief coming toward him. The village chief said that very few frogs had been found in the past few days, and there was a note of sighing in his words. With that, holding a flashlight in one hand and a dip net and plastic bag in the other, he continued his frog protection effort on the dark, damp, chilly mountain road.
Witnessing with my own eyes local residents willing (though paid) to give of themselves for such tiny frogs still moved me deeply. I feel that the faint glow of the flashlights in the hands of the frog protection volunteers is precisely the light of hope for Taiwan's upward rise.
A Singaporean friend said he envied Taiwan, China for having so many fine mountains and waters, and that he very much wanted to emigrate to Taiwan, China, buy a piece of land and grow things. Should we not cherish our blessings all the more, do our utmost to protect our own wonderful environment, and not let down this island of Formosa?
Thanks to the Society of Wilderness, and to the many volunteers who give without complaint or regret!
Reposted from an article by Brother Watermelon.
http://hfnaturefarm.blogspot.tw/2013/10/blog-post_1092.html?utm_source=BP_recent