The "Pelister" National Park has, after more than three decades, restarted clearing and repair work on the 8-kilometre uncategorised road that links the Info Centre (at 1,350 metres) with the Hunting Lodge (at 2,000 metres). It's the first serious access to this part of the park since the 1990s, when maintenance stopped for lack of funds.

The work is being done in two phases. The first phase, running through the end of June, covers the removal of vegetation that has become a safety hazard. The second phase, set to finish by July 13, covers the repair of the road surface and the drainage channels. The director of the "Pelister" Public Institution, Ivancho Toshevski, said the road is "the only communication option for accessing the higher parts of the park".

The road serves several core functions - video surveillance, nature protection, fire protection and ranger patrols. Without it, those activities have been effectively impossible for the last three decades. Which means the national park has operated with limited monitoring capacity - opening the question of how many fires, biodiversity failures or injuries could have been prevented if the road had been kept in working order.

The work is happening in a protective zone outside the strictly protected areas - so there's no legal obstacle to the intervention. The open question is whether this is the start of a serious plan to renew the infrastructure of Macedonia's national parks, or simply an emergency cleanup driven by the summer tourist season. Historically, the second option is the safer bet.