THE search has begun for a new leader to take Dartmoor on the next step of a ‘challenging’ journey.

Tributes were paid at a meeting of the Dartmoor National Park Authority (DNPA) to chief executive Kevin Bishop, who recently announced that he will be standing down after 18 years in what he described as his ‘dream job’.

Members have now voted to spend £30,000 to bring in an executive recruitment firm to start the search for his successor.

Authority chairman William Dracup, himself a moorland farmer, said Dr Bishop had shown ‘tremendous leadership’ since taking up the post in 2007.

And Philip Sanders, whose 20 years on the DNPA came to an end after the county council elections in May, said Dr Bishop’s contributions had been ‘amazing’.

Mr Sanders, who was presented with a specially engraved Dartmoor signpost to mark his service, said Dartmoor had to face up to fresh challenges, not least a lack of government funding.

“The money is a joke as far as central government is concerned,” he said. “I get the sense that they don’t want farmers and farming, and they don’t particularly want national parks either.

“But the park will always continue, whether this authority changes shape or not.

“Dartmoor has been there longer than any of us can imagine, and it will be there longer than any of us can imagine.”

Members also discussed recent newspaper articles describing Dartmoor as ‘a desert’.

Writing in the Guardian, ecology campaigner George Monbiot said purple moor-grass – Molinia Caerulea – was taking over vast areas of Britain’s national parks.

“Most of central Dartmoor is now Molinia desert,” he wrote. “And just as disheartening and hard to traverse.”

He said factors including the degradation of peat and the burning of stubble had helped accelerate the problem.

And nature campaigner Tony Whitehead told the same newspaper: “It’s just desperate – the place is bleached, it’s a dead zone and I know how rich it could be.”

But DNPA member and former TV journalist Guy Pannell said he disagreed.

“I am disappointed that there has been national publicity about the state of Dartmoor,” he said. “People have been calling Dartmoor a desert, which I think is far from the case.”

Member Mark Owen, who runs an organic farm near Widecombe, welcomed the DNPA’s annual review which highlighted some of the authority’s successes in areas including nature, farming, forestry and culture.

But, he added: “It’s not all good. There are still issues with some public behaviour, and the impact of the funding cuts. We could do more, and there are things to be addressed.”

Dr Bishop agreed: “Everything isn’t perfect in the national park, and we need to do more, but this is about heralding the achievements of the authority over the last 12 months.

“It isn’t saying everything is perfect, but it is about celebrating some of our successes.”