GEORGETOWN, Ky. (Oct. 7, 2014) – On Sunday, tree planting and painting were among a long list of completed projects following Toyota’s annual volunteer day at the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Salato Wildlife Education Center. In celebration of National Public Lands Day (NPLD), over 100 people pitched in to complete an estimated one year’s worth of work in about four hours.   
 
Salato visitors will notice improvements ranging from a newly created rain garden to a freshly painted meeting room inside the center, plus several miles of cleared trail, a new roof for the site’s groundhog exhibit and new turf at the raptor aviary.
 
The top project for the day was the construction of a “Bait Shop” near the site’s most popular exhibit, the Living Stream, which will be used to educate youngsters about conservation in Kentucky.
 
This marked Toyota’s 4th consecutive year partnering with Fish and Wildlife at Salato, as part of a national program. Each year, NPLD brings together thousands of volunteers from coast to coast to improve and restore the lands and facilities that Americans use for recreation, education, exercise and enjoyment. In 2013, more than 175,000 Americans participated at more than 2,200 sites in all 50 states, Guam, Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        
For the sixteenth consecutive year, Toyota was the event’s national corporate sponsor. Over 4,000 Toyota employees and their families volunteered at 42 different public land areas in 17 states and Puerto Rico.
 
Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc. (TMS) signed on as national corporate sponsor of the event in 1999. Since then, 32,665 Toyota employees have volunteered at 427 sites. They’ve:
 
•          Removed 192,150 pounds of trash and 4,270 pounds of invasive vegetation
•          Built/maintained 282 miles of trails
•          Planted 21,350 trees, shrubs and other vegetation
 
“This unique sponsorship supports Toyota’s global commitment to environmental stewardship by providing our employees with meaningful volunteer opportunities to help improve public lands in their local communities,” said Michael Rouse, TMS vice president of diversity, philanthropy and community affairs.
 
More information about NPLD can be found at: www.publiclandsday.org.