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June 16, 2003

Toyota To Fund New Texas State Park Guide, Wildlife Expo

AUSTIN, Texas -- A new color guidebook to Texas State Parks will be available free to the public this fall, thanks to sponsor funding from Toyota through the Parks and Wildlife Foundation of Texas, Inc. The automaker will also provide funding to the foundation for Texas Wildlife Expo, individual state park maps and new pocket license holders for hunters and anglers.

Texas Parks and Wildlife Department will use Toyota funds to help print 500,000 copies of the new Texas State Park Guide. The guide is set for distribution in October at state parks, Texas Toyota dealerships, selected radio stations, chambers of commerce, special events and other locations. The four-color, 108-page, digest sized guide will include descriptive text, photos and details on facilities and programs for more than 120 Texas State Parks.

"At a time when state government is facing tight budget constraints, the Toyota/Foundation sponsorship will make possible public benefits that our agency could not afford to provide otherwise," said Robert L. Cook, TPWD executive director.

The Toyota sponsor agreement runs through April 30, 2004. This is the second year Toyota has sponsored TPWD activities through the privately operated, non-profit Parks and Wildlife Foundation of Texas. The foundation was established in 1991 to help support public Texas conservation projects with private funds. It has since raised more than $35 million for Texas conservation.

"This sponsor is a good fit for Texas Parks and Wildlife," said Pat Oles, foundation chairman. "Toyota has a long-standing reputation as an environmentally friendly automaker, and they have a substantial and growing commitment to Texas."

Toyota was the first automaker to receive the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) Global 500 Award for development of environmental technologies and measures. The Sierra Club recognized Toyota with its "Excellence in Environmental Engineering" award during Earth Day 2000.

"We want to be a good neighbor in communities where we do business," said Toby Hynes, president of Gulf States Toyota, Inc., the company's regional distributor based in Houston. "Texas continues to face serious air-quality challenges, and we're hopeful that our gas-electric, low-emission Prius car will be part of the solution. We want to be the vehicle of choice for people heading to the great outdoors."

Toyota is also a top tier Chairman's Covey sponsor for Texas Wildlife Expo on Oct. 4-5 in Austin, where visitors of all ages can try fishing, shooting, rock climbing, kayaking and more-all at no cost. The event relies almost entirely on sponsor donations to remain free to the public. Last year, the Expo drew more than 44,000 people from across the state, making it Texas' largest free outdoors event.

New this year, the automaker will provide funding to the foundation to pay for several hundred thousand plastic wallet holders for hunting and fishing licenses. These will be available free this fall at retailers across Texas. Larger retailers such as Walmart and Academy already offer their own custom license holders, so the sponsorship allows smaller retailers and TPWD offices to provide the same customer benefit.

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