Press Release
For Immediate Use
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Where have all the bluebells gone…? Greater Manchester Wildflower project puts the 'Belles' back in our woodland

On Sunday 25th April, Red Rose Forest will celebrate the sucess of it's Woodland Wildflower project - with an event that symbolises the incredible achievements of this three-year long project.

A Community seed-sowing at 2pm in Blackley Ancient Forest, North Manchester will be the final event organised under the Woodland Wildflower project, 'phase one' - which has to date covered an area of Greater Manchester's woodland floor as large as two football pitches with new sensitive wildflower colonies. Often working in very urban areas with only very small woodland, the project has also been able to win over the support of local people - with 1,000 people across the area getting involved in seed collecting, sowing and growing.

The value of wildflowers to the local woodlands is often under rated. The presence of plants like the Bluebell, Foxglove and Red Campion improve the biodiversity of the woodland, attracting insects, birds, butterflies and animal life, enrich the forest, fortify the soils as well as making local woodlands impressive and beautiful places to visit.

When the project began in 2001, research showed that roughly 10 flower species were being lost from each county in the North West every 10 years and the aim of the Woodland Wildflowers project was to preserve what was left. But rather than just mass planting of flower seeds or plugs, the project has given local people the skills to do the work themselves - and the success of this has been demonstrated right across the Greater Manchester area.

Woodland in Highfield Country Park, located on the Stockport/Manchester border, contains new wildflowers including Bluebells and Foxgloves after volunteers from St Andrews Primary school collected seed from more species rich areas and created a wildflower nursery to grow the seeds into transferable plug plants. The woodland is now filled with nearly one hectare of wildflowers.

Similarly, wildflower nurseries have been created in Trafford and Bury, all with the help of local volunteers. The nurseries have proved such a success that Red Rose Forest is currently trying to negotiate funding so that Bolton, Manchester and Salford can also create their own sustainable wildflower nurseries.

Fliss Paris of Red Rose Forest said:
The Woodland Wildflower Project has provided communities with a lot of sustainable wildflowers within woodland and made a massive impact on wildflower coverage in the Greater Manchester area. We are hoping to set up more wildflower nurseries, which will mean that rather than relying on private suppliers, the boroughs will be able to breed their own wildflowers independently. This should then swell the number of wildflowers available to community groups.

Phase two of the Woodland Wildflower Project is currently under development. A new project recently launched in Atherton in Wigan is the first scheme to be developed in phase two, offering a more holistic approach to wildflowers - including events about wildflower history, myths and legends, 'inspiration' trips for local people to woodlands and education and training days as well as the seed collection and sowing events.

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Digital images are available to compliment this press release. Please contact Faith Ashworth, Marketing Manager on 0161 872 1660 or faith@redroseforest.co.uk

For more information about the event on 25th April in Blackley Forest or the Woodland Wildflower Project please contact either Faith Ashworth or Chris Johnstone at Red Rose Forest on 0161 872 1660.

Event Details

Event: Volunteers from the Friends of Blackley Forest will join Red Rose Forest to sow Bluebell, Foxglove and Pendulous Sedge wildflower seeds and plant small wildflower 'plug' plants in Blackley Ancient Forest, in Blackley, North Manchester.

Date/Time: Sunday 25th April at 2pm.

Meet: At the gated entrance to Blackley Forest on Blackley New Road - (opposite 279 Blackley New Road).

Contact: Before the event - Faith Ashworth on 0161 872 1660
On the day - Fliss Paris on 0787 6021 8502

Notes to the Editor

The Red Rose Forest Woodland Wildflower Project is linked to the national Woodland Wildflower Project. The national project has received funding from the Local Heritage Initiative, which is run by the Countryside Agency with funding of £8 million from the Heritage Lottery Fund and more than £1 million from the Nationwide Building Society. It was designed to help local groups in England to investigate explain and care for their landscape, landmarks, traditions and culture. The aim is to celebrate the past, to inform the present and encourage thought and action for the future

Red Rose Forest
Red Rose Forest is an environmental regeneration initiative in Greater Manchester and one of 12 Community Forests being developed on England. We are a partnership of the Countryside Agency, the Forestry Commission and six Greater Manchester authorities. Over 40 years we will plant over 25 million trees, across 292 square miles of the area, as the framework for a programme of regeneration and renewal that will make Greater Manchester a greener and more satisfying place to live. At the heart of our strategy is the involvement of local people and local businesses in the social, economic and environmental regeneration of the area through land development and enhancement for the enjoyment of communities and individuals.