February, 22, 2005.

Press Release

RED ROSE FOREST PHOTO OPPORTUNITIES
Love can save the day

Event: School tree planting event could help save the Manchester Poplar.

Date/Time: Friday, February 25, 10.00am.

Meet: Church Inn, Church Lane, Prestwich Clough, Bury.

Contact: Chris Johnstone at Red Rose Forest on 0161 872 1660.

BURY school children will become blind date matchmakers, on Friday, as they set up a group of wooden hearts in an environmental experiment of national importance.
The event, jointly organized by Red Rose Forest, Greater Manchester’s Community Forest and Bury MBC, will see pupils from Park View Primary School, introducing new variants of the Manchester Poplar into Prestwich Clough, to save the tree from extinction.
Since the summer of 2000, a virulent disease has hit the Manchester Poplar, the popular, local name for the native Black Poplar.
The disease has been initially diagnosed as the fungus Poplar Scab and until now the only course of action has been to fell any diseased trees.

The Poplar trees currently found in Greater Manchester are based around a single clone, which makes them very susceptible to being wiped out by a single disease - in this case by Poplar Scab.
A new approach, being pioneered by Red Rose Forest, means the school children and other volunteers, will be planting new variants of the young female trees next to fully grown male Manchester Poplars.
It is hoped these new trees are resistant to the fungus. It is also hoped that the new trees will one day reproduce with the old trees and create a new disease resistant variant of the Manchester Poplar.
Red Rose Forest’s Jon Steele, said: ”The Manchester Poplar is an extremely important part of Manchester’s heritage. It was widely planted at the height of the Industrial Revolution because it was very resistant to high pollution levels found at that time.
“Hopefully, the new trees being planted will be resistant to the disease and a new population of Manchester will be established. The kids at Park View Primary School are helping to secure the future of Manchester’s heritage with this ground breaking approach.”
For more information about this project, please contact Chris Johnstone at Red Rose Forest on 0161 872 1660 chris@redroseforest.co.uk

Notes to the Editor

Red Rose Forest was created in 1992 and is an environmental regeneration initiative in Greater Manchester. It is one of 12 Community Forests being developed in England. 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 more satisfying place to live. At the heart of our strategy is the involvement of people and businesses in the social, economic and environmental regeneration of the area through land development for the enjoyment of communities.
Red Rose Forest is a partnership of the Countryside Agency, the Forestry Commission and six Greater Manchester authorities.

ENDS