Copenhagen metro plan threatens protected toad breeding sites

Copenhagen’s planned M5 metro line could damage breeding and resting areas for the threatened green toad, DR reports. City politicians are due to decide what action should be taken regarding the strictly protected species.

M5 is planned to run from Copenhagen Central Station across Amager and end at the future Lynetteholm. The green toad has previously been spotted near the planned route.

Metroselskabet, the company behind Copenhagen’s metro, has applied to the municipality for permission to move the toads and destroy or damage their breeding and resting areas.

The plans have been criticised by the Danish Society for Nature Conservation. Knud Erik Hansen, its Copenhagen chair, said the green toad and its habitat should be left undisturbed.

“We are allowing urban development to drive out the green toad, and Prøvestenen Syd may be the last place in northern Amager where it remains,” he said.

Metroselskabet searched for green toads in the area this spring. After finding none, the company concluded that the toads were not within the construction zone, while acknowledging that they could still move into the area once excavation work begins.

Hansen said the company had not carried out sufficiently thorough preparatory work.

“It does not help to go out and listen for two evenings, hear nothing and then conclude that there are none. But there are green toads out there,” he said.

Metroselskabet said in a written response that it was aware that construction of M5 must not reduce the species’ local breeding and resting areas or its ecological functionality. It said the purpose of the proposed mitigation measures and application was to prevent that.

The company said a key part of its application was to create permanent, carefully planned habitats that would provide added value for the species, and to move toads there where appropriate.

Jakob Næsager, Copenhagen’s children and youth mayor and leader of the Conservatives in the Copenhagen City Council, said Metroselskabet was right to seek permission to handle the toads.

“We believe it is prudent to ensure now that, if a green toad is encountered, people will know how to respond rather than becoming paralysed, so that metro construction does not come to a halt,” he said.

DR said it was seeking a comment from Copenhagen’s technical and environmental mayor, Line Barfod of the Red-Green Alliance.

The first stage of M5 is scheduled to open in 2036.