NATURE lovers have reason to celebrate thanks to a £1.5 million boost for creating community woodland in the North-west.

Red Rose Forest sites in Bolton, Bury and Leigh will benefit from the money which has been made available by the North West Development Agency to transform contaminated, derelict and little used areas of land.

The extra funding will help to continue the development of forest sites at Horrocks Hill -- between Bolton and Horwich -- Hurst Farm in Bury and Higher Folds in Leigh and Tyldesley. The Red Rose Forest has already transformed a large part of Greater Manchester and over the next 40 years will include the planting of 25 million trees across 292 square miles.