Lee Schofield (conservationist)

Lee Schofield is a British naturalist and nature writer.^[1] He wrote Wild Fell: Fighting for Nature on a Lake District Hill Farm, which describes his work as site manager for the RSPB at Haweswater in the Lake District National Park.^[2]

Early life and education[edit]

Schofield was born in Scotland but spent his childhood in Devon.^[3] He studied Zoology at University,^[4] followed by an MSc in Ecological Management at Imperial College, London.^[5] For his MSc dissertation^[5] and for a subsequent academic publication,^[6] he investigated social attitudes to large mammal reintroductions in the Scottish Highlands, a subject he would later return to in his writing.^[7]

Work[edit]

Schofield began working as site manager for the RSPB at Haweswater shortly after the charity took over the tenancies of Naddle and Swindale Farms in 2012.^[3] The work he oversees is based on a partnership with United Utilities,^[8] who own the Haweswater Reservoir and the 10,000 hectares of catchment land around it.^[9] The part of the catchment that falls under the RSPB and United Utilities partnership is managed for the benefit of water, wildlife and people.^[10] Major programmes of woodland, bog, hay meadow and river restoration^[11][12] have been delivered and a sustainable grazing regime with native breed cattle and ponies and a small number of sheep has replaced the previous more intensive sheep-grazing model,^[8] resulting in increases in a wide range of species, including Atlantic salmon,^[13] tree pipit,^[14] red grouse, marsh fritillary butterfly,^[15] water vole^[16] and many specialist upland plants. Haweswater is increasingly recognised as one of the UK's most ambitious and pioneering nature recovery projects^[4] and has received multiple awards and accolades.^[17][18][19]    

Schofield's first book, Wild Fell: Fighting for Nature on a Lake District Hill Farm, was published in February 2022. Reviewing it for The Guardian, Amy-Jane Beer described Schofield as "a delightfully companionable guide".^[2] It details his work at Haweswater, charting both the ecological changes that he has helped to bring about, as well as the personal challenges involved.^[3][20] Wild Fell won the Richard Jefferies Award in 2022,^[21] and was Highly Commended in the James Cropper Wainwright Prize for Writing on Conservation in the same year.^[22]

Schofield regularly gives talks and interviews^[23] about his work, and has contributed to several anthologies,^[24][25] co-authored academic papers,^[26][27][6] and written for magazines, including British Wildlife,^[28] Inkcap Journal,^[29] Cumbria Life and BBC Wildlife.

Selected publications[edit]

Books[edit]

• Wild Fell: Fighting for Nature on a Lake District Hill Farm. Doubleday, 2022. ISBN 978-0857527752

Chapters[edit]

• Into the Red. Edited by Kit Jewitt and Mike Toms. British Trust for Ornithology, 2022. ISBN 9781912642380. Schofield contributes the chapter "Tree Pipit".
• North Country: An anthology of landscape and nature. Edited by Karen Lloyd. Saraband, 2022. ISBN 978-1913393403. Schofield contributes the chapter "The Northern Hay Meadow".
• The Wolf: Culture, Nature, Heritage. Edited by Ian Convery, Owen Nevin, Erwin van Maanen, Peter Davis and Karen Lloyd. Boydell and Brewer, 2023. ISBN 9781837650156. Schofield contributes the chapter "The Three-Legged Stool: Wolves, Shepherds and Sheep".

References[edit]

External links[edit]

• Official website