It starts later this year.
Three years of digging into the sand. Trying to save creatures that shouldn’t really be there anymore, except they are. And they’re not doing okay.
The government just dropped a funding announcement. Buried in the bureaucratic noise are two specific targets in Cumbria: the northern dune tiger beetle and the natterjack toad. Rare? You bet. Endangered? Absolutely.
Jack Harper works for Amphibian and Reptile Conservations. He calls Cumbria one of Britain’s “last strongholds” for the natterjack.
There are only a few thousand of these things left in the whole UK.
That’s it. That’s the entire population pool we’re talking about.
Why mix beetles and toads? Harper explains they share real estate. Sand dunes. Those shifting, wind-scoured ridges where nothing really wants to grow except for, apparently, the most vocal mating displays on the continent. The toads are loud. You can’t miss them if you’re listening.
The plan isn’t just about cheerleading for nature. It involves heavy lifting. Arc, Nuclear Waste Services, and the Cumbria Wildlife Trust are joining forces. They’ll survey the habitats across the county.
Look around. Most dunes in the country look beaten down. Historically degraded is a polite way to say destroyed. Climate change chewed them up. Coastal development chewed them down. We paved the beachside. We heated the planet.
So now we have to undo a little bit of that mess.
Is it enough to save a few thousand noisy frogs? Probably not on its own. But it’s a start. The sand shifts anyway. We’re just hoping something stays put long enough to matter.
