A PROJECT to save East Lancashire’s most threatened songbird is being assisted by the efforts of Burnley gardeners.

Experts have placed the tiny twite, or Pennine finch, found on moorland near Worsthorne and Hurstwood, on the endangered species list.

Now, horticulturalists from the Offshoots Permaculture Project in Burnley’s Towneley Park have been recruited to support work that will revive the twite’s habitat.

Earlier this year, the Watershed Landscape Project, backed by the county council and United Utilities, was given a £2 million Heritage Lottery grant to revegetate parts of the South Pennines.

And this funding will be used by Offshoots to provide 15,000 cotton grass plants to breathe new life into bare peatland in Worsthorne and surrounding hamlets.

Phil Dewhurst, Offshoots manager, said: “This was rather an unusual request for us.

"We have developed experience of growing vegetable and trees for amenity but we have successfully grown cotton-grass in a number of trials.”

Peatland in rural Burnley has been devastated by centuries of explotation and industry, and the scheme is designed to reintroduce specimens such as heather, cotton grass and bilberry to encourage their restoration.

Online information is also being offered on former industrial sites, such as the former limestone excavations at Sheddon Clough.

The initiative will be officially launched on Friday at the group’s home in the park.

The county council is behind upgrades to rural pathways.