A WOODLAND manager who played a key role in the transformation of the region's forests into internationally important havens for wildlife has hung-up his axe.

Bill Burlton, 59, who managed conservation projects and recreational facilities in the 200,000 acre Kielder Forest District - which includes Kielder and Hamsterley Forests and Chopwell Wood - has retired from the Forestry Commission after a 35-year career.

A native of Gloucestershire, his first job as a 16-year-old was on trawler sailing out of Fleetwood. He opted for life at sea at the suggestion of his careers teacher, but the chill of the Icelandic fishing grounds soon drove him back to shore.

A variety of jobs followed, before he found himself in Fort William helping to build a pulp mill. That contract completed, he knocked on the door of the local Forestry Commission office seeking work and was promptly told to start on Monday.

Stints on Mull and in the Scottish Highlands followed, with forestry school sandwiched in between, before he arrived in the old Rothbury Forest district in Northumberland.

He took up his post at Kielder in 1985 and counts the restoration of an initial 500 acres of wetland in the Border Mires (Kielder Forest) as among the most important changes he has seen. The four-year project, funded through the EU's Life scheme, has produced an extensive revival in plants and wildlife.

He also played a pivotal role in shaping plans to help save red squirrels in Kielder, home to 70pc of the English population, and improved management of the 21 Sites of Special Scientific Interest on commission land in the region.

The forest was now about much more than timber production, said Mr Burlton, adding: "It offers incredibly important wildlife habitats, while giving hundreds of thousands of people a chance to explore the wilderness each year."

A keen botanist and outdoor enthusiast, Mr Burlton plans an active retirement, including rambles through some of the woodland habitats he helped to create.