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
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
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.
^Schofield, Lee (2023). "The Three-Legged Stool: Wolves, Shepherds and Sheep". In Convery, Ian; Davis, Peter; Lloyd, Karen; Nevin, Owen T; van Maanen, Erwin (eds.). The Wolf: Culture, Nature, Heritage. Boydell and Brewer. pp. 363–370. ISBN9781837650156.
^Schofield, Lee (2022). "The Northern Hay Meadow". In Lloyd, Karen (ed.). North Country: An anthology of landscape and nature. Saraband. pp. 252–261. ISBN9781913393403.
