A 33-YEAR-OLD fly fisherman has landed a top job in the North-East’s expanding forestry sector.

Ben Tansey has been appointed director of Northwoods, an organisation which helps the region’s forestry businesses with training and advice, marketing products, securing grants and encouraging investment.

He gained a forestry degree at Edinburgh University, during which time he worked for the United States Forest Service. He then travelled and worked in the state-run forests of Australia.

Mr Tansey’s new role includes strengthening the region’s developing wood fuel sector.

The North-East is England’s biggest timber-growing area, producing 750,000 tonnes annually.

The Forestry Commission alone supplies 25pc of all English grown timber from Kielder Forest – 30,000 tonnes of which is used as fuel, mainly at SembCorp on Teesside.

Mr Tansey said: “Wood is one of the fuels of the future. Fossil fuel prices are unpredictable and have recently been increasing, but well-managed woods can produce timber year after year.”

He has worked at Northwoods before, helping deliver projects such as the award-winning Ignite wood fuel programme.

Richard Pow, of the Forestry Commission, said: “We estimate that the woodfuel sector will double in value to the region by 2015.

“The case for using wood as fuel is becoming widely accepted.

It’s a greener alternative to coal, oil or gas, but we need more private land owners to bring their woods into management.”

More than 50pc of them are undermanaged in the region and could produce an additional 100,000 tonnes of wood per year on a sustainable basis – much of it for fuel.

Mr Pow said: “Wildlife would also benefit from woodland thinning and well-planned cycles of felling and planting.”

A growing number of small and medium-sized wood fuel heating systems in the North-East include 30 schools, leisure centres, hotels and supermarkets.

Major industrial users include SembCorp on Teesside which consumes about 300,000 tonnes of wood each year.