GEORGETOWN, Ky. (October 4, 2010)—Toyota Motor Manufacturing, Kentucky, Inc. (TMMK) donated $25,000 to The Nature Conservancy (TNC) in Kentucky to support efforts to step up conservation management at the Conservancy?s 30 nature preserves and the more than 100 conservation easements under its jurisdiction.  

 

?From building to selling vehicles, Toyota strives to be an environmental leader in the auto industry, primarily through supporting the communities where we do business,? says Wil James, President of TMMK. ?The Conservancy?s land management initiatives fit well with Toyota’s environmental mission, especially through their inclusion of local volunteers in vital land and water stewardship activities.?

 

Over the next five years, the land management initiatives include increasing the number of volunteer preserve days and corporate preserve workdays to engage more local community members. Other initiatives include implementing priority stewardship actions at all Conservancy preserves and natural areas where the Conservancy provides management assistance; develop a dedicated network of stewardship and easement monitoring volunteers to increase capacity at the Conservancy?s preserves; and, increase prescribed fire capacity and support to restore native habitats. 

 

?While our nature preserves have been spared from development, many of them require specific management activities to abate threats including exotic species invasions, all-terrain vehicle use and the halt of naturally-occurring fires on the landscape,? said Terry Cook, state director for The Nature Conservancy of Kentucky. ?Toyota?s support helps us implement the proper management needed to ensure these preserves continue to benefit rare, threatened or declining plant and animal species, and where appropriate, meet the recreation, education and research needs of local communities, schools and universities.?

 

About Toyota
Toyota (NYSE:TM) established operations in North America in 1957 and currently operates 14 manufacturing plants, including one under construction. TMMK is Toyota?s largest plant in North America employing about 6,600 full-time team members with the annual capacity to produce 500,000 engines and vehicles including the Camry, Camry Hybrid, Avalon, and the Venza. For more information, visit www.toyotageorgetown.com.