Qiao Changsheng bears witness to Shennongjia’s change from a“timber farm” to a nature reserve.[Photo by Liu Xiangrui/China Daily]

For Qiao Changsheng, 63, the dramatic change from getting satisfaction from hacking down more trees to devoting himself to guarding a natural forest was mostly a passive one at first.

Qiao, a former lumber worker in Hubei province's Shennongjia area, became a forest ranger there in 2000, when the government moved to protect the local forest resources.

Since then, the area has gradually changed from a famous "vast natural timber farm" into a national natural reserve and a popular tourist destination blessed with an attractive environment.

Qiao, who has worked in the area for 40 years, started as a logging road builder when he was 22. In the early years, the lumber workers went wherever the roads led them, Qiao recalls.

When his father retired as a feller five years later, Qiao took on his job. Lumbering back then was not only heavy manual labor, but dangerous, too.

Qiao and his fellow workers lived in simple, temporary yurts. Sometimes they needed to start working at dawn, and not rest until the trucks were filled. Some-times they even used torches to work at night.

"Almost everyone in the area depended on lumbering: 'No wood, no food.' We wouldn't feel sorry for the trees. The environment was never on our minds," Qiao recalls.

For years, the forestry industry was the main revenue source of the region.

During the peak years, there were more than 10,000 people working in Shennongjia, feeding more than 100 wood-processing factories.

Qiao could fell up to 2,000 cubic meters a year in his prime. Although he worked hard, Qiao still had challenges supporting his family financially, especially paying for his children's schooling.

In 2000, the timber-cut-ting was halted and wood factories were all shut down. The main function of Muyu Forestry Center - Qiao's employer - has changed from felling the forest to protecting it, according to Zhao Pinling, deputy director of the center.