Press Release
For Immediate Use

Atherton is Blooming Beautiful!

Red Rose Forest, Greater Manchester's Community Forest, is pleased to announce it's brand new project, specifically for the people of Atherton, Wigan which will get the whole community going really wild about woodland wildflowers!

The Flowering Community Project will give people across the Atherton ward a chance to learn about their local woodlands, discover the value of wildflowers within the area and pick up loads of gardening skills along the way! The project will include trips to some of the areas most stunning woodlands, seed sowing and collecting days (something that the whole family can get involved with!) and training and education events.

The project got off to a bang at the Hagfold Environment Day (February 21st 2004), where children from the Hagfold estate planted the seeds of a beautiful wildflower - the Ox Eye Daisy - into pots and took them home to grow. The kids can now either plant them in their garden or bring them to plant in a community space later in the year.

For more information, to find out about events that may be up and coming or to get involved with the project, please contact Fliss Paris at Red Rose Forest on 0161 872 1660 or email fliss@redroseforest.co.uk

Notes to the Editor

Images to complement this press release are available. Please contact Chris Johnstone, Marketing Officer, Red Rose Forest on 0161 872 1660 or chris@redroseforest.co.uk.

Atherton Flowering Community Project partners include Red Rose Forest, Landlife (the National Wildflower charity), Atherton's "Cleaner, Greener Initiative". This includes representatives from Atherton Environmental Projects community group, Wigan People and Places, the Township Manager (local Councillor and other Wigan MBC employees), The Spinney Hospital, Wigan Leisure and Culture Trust and the regeneration team on the Hagfold Estate (SRB funded Atherton Building Communities).

Red Rose Forest is an environmental regeneration initiative in Greater Manchester and is one of 12 Community Forests being developed in England. We are a partnership of The Countryside Agency, the Forestry Commission and six Greater Manchester local authorities. The Red Rose Forest partnership is planting over 25 million trees across 292 square miles of the area, as part of a 40-year programme that will make Greater Manchester a greener and more satisfying place to live and work. At the heart of our strategy is the involvement of local communities in the environmental, social and economic regeneration of the area.