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Over the years, toad migrations and Toad Patrols have been
featured regularly on regional TV, radio and in newspapers. You
might decide that you'd like to raise awareness of your toad
crossing in this way - if so the following might be of use...
In some cases media exposure can have a positive effect on a
toad crossing: it can make drivers slow down; it can raise
awareness of the site to the local council, increasing the
likelihood of required action (e.g. sign installation); or it
can attract volunteers to help. All of these have positive
implications for the toads. On the negative side, media exposure
can sometimes lead to anti-social repercussions where signs are
stolen or where toads (or worse, patrollers) suffer abuse, a
situation which unnecessarily affects your safety. These are
issues you must weigh up before publicising your Toad Patrol.
Should you decide to publicise your toad crossing, there is a
press release template available to get you started. Send your
press release to local media outlets - a good place to start is
by phoning your local newspaper and asking for the newsroom, you
can then speak to or email a journalist about your toad
crossing. Another good idea is to get in touch with your local
BBC news office - the email address will be 'name of county'@bbc.co.uk (e.g. the Devon BBC office is devon@bbc.co.uk).
This could then lead to both BBC radio and TV coverage.
It's notoriously difficult to tell how much publicity your site
might get - it might be that you hear very little, or you may be
overcome with enquiries. One thing that's really important is
that you have some key messages ready for when the journalists
ring (e.g. "we want volunteers", "we want the council to listen
to us", "we want to help our local toads", etc.), this way you
can get your message heard clearly, before the interviewer takes
you off the subject with other questions.
There might be other people you could forward media enquiries
to, should you need to. We're always here to help and your local
Amphibian and Reptile Group
or Wildlife Trust, will be good local contacts. Information
on free photos is available in the notes section of the press
release template. Please contact Communications Coordinator Sam
Taylor if you have any questions or need help:
sam.taylor@froglife.org
or 01733 425822.
Keeping track of where your Patrol has appeared in the media is
really useful for a number of reasons: i) it means you can
re-contact journalists, should you need to, the following year;
ii) it means you have a public record of the site's importance,
which could be useful should the site become threatened in
future years. Please also send photocopies of (or links to) any
coverage to us; we can then feedback the level of publicity the
Toads on Roads project has received nationally each year.
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