I am taking a bit of a break from campaigning on National Parks in order to finish writing a book   I completed a draft four years ago but, since setting up parkswatchscotland, have hardly progressed that further.  At New Year I realised that to do so I would need to devote a lot less time to parkswatch.  So, from 1st February, I have stopped writing substantive posts myself, with all the monitoring and research that that entails, and instead have been concentrating on my book.

While to date I have been responsible for the majority of posts, I have always seen parkswatch as a collective enterprise and whatever I have written could not have happened without the help of others.  The contributions from other authors and from the readers who have commented on posts have been fantastic and I hope they will continue – as they have done this week!

While taking a step back for a while,  the issues facing our National Parks continue: the Climate Emergency, overgrazing by red deer, industrial forestry, the planning free-for-all, inappropriate tourist developments, rural poverty, their democratic legitimacy and accountability etc.   I remain committed to publishing posts on these and other issues from others.  Please send contributions to nickkempe@parkswatchscotland.co.uk.   It could be anything from an analytical piece to a photograph with a comment illustrating an issue.

Once I have my book back on course, I may re-start writing  short posts but I need to put the book first until its finished.  Meantime, my thanks to all readers for your support.