Lee Schofield is a British naturalist and nature writer. He wrote ''Wild Fell: Fighting for Nature on a Lake District Hill Farm'', which describes his work as site manager for the

RSPB The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) is a Charitable_organization#United_Kingdom, charitable organisation registered in Charity Commission for England and Wales, England and Wales and in Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator, ...

Haweswater Haweswater is a reservoir in the valley of Mardale, Cumbria in the Lake District, England. Work to raise the height of the original natural lake was started in 1929. It was controversially dammed after the UK Parliament passed a Private Act g ...

in the

Lake District National Park The Lake District National Park is a national park in North West England that includes all of the central Lake District, though the town of Kendal, some coastal areas, and the Lakeland Peninsulas are outside the park boundary. The area was desi ...

Early life and education

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

Work

Schofield began working as site manager for the

at Haweswater shortly after the charity took over the tenancies of Naddle and Swindale Farms in 2012. The work he oversees is based on a partnership with United Utilities, who own the Haweswater Reservoir and the 10,000 hectares of catchment land around it. The part of the catchment that falls under the RSPB and United Utilities partnership is managed for the benefit of water, wildlife and people. Major programmes of woodland, bog, hay meadow and river restoration 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, resulting in increases in a wide range of species, including

Atlantic salmon The Atlantic salmon (''Salmo salar'') is a species of ray-finned fish in the family Salmonidae. It is the third largest of the Salmonidae, behind Siberian taimen and Pacific Chinook salmon, growing up to a meter in length. Atlantic salmon are ...

, tree pipit,

red grouse The red grouse (''Lagopus lagopus scotica'') is a medium-sized bird of the grouse family which is found in heather moorland in Great Britain and Ireland. It is usually classified as a subspecies of the willow ptarmigan but is sometimes consider ...

, marsh fritillary butterfly, water vole and many specialist upland plants. Haweswater is increasingly recognised as one of the UK's most ambitious and pioneering nature recovery projects and has received multiple awards and accolades. 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 ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'', Amy-Jane Beer described Schofield as "a delightfully companionable guide". 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. ''Wild Fell'' won the Richard Jefferies Award in 2022, and was Highly Commended in the James Cropper Wainwright Prize for Writing on Conservation in the same year. Schofield regularly gives talks and interviews about his work, and has contributed to several anthologies, co-authored academic papers, and written for magazines, including ''British Wildlife'', ''Inkcap Journal,'' ''Cumbria Life'' and ''

BBC Wildlife ''BBC Wildlife'' is a British glossy, all-colour magazine about wildlife, operated and published by Immediate Media Company. It produces 13 issues a year. ''BBC Wildlife'' was launched in January 1963 as ''Animals Magazine'', edited by filmmaker ...

.''

Selected publications

Books

*
Wild Fell: Fighting for Nature on a Lake District Hill Farm
'. Doubleday, 2022.

Chapters

*
Into the Red
'' Edited by Kit Jewitt and Mike Toms.

British Trust for Ornithology The British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) is an organisation founded in 1932 for the study of birds in the British Isles. The Prince of Wales has been patron since October 2020. History Beginnings In 1931 Max Nicholson wrote: In the United State ...

, 2022. . Schofield contributes the chapter "Tree Pipit". *
North Country: An anthology of landscape and nature
'. Edited by Karen Lloyd. Saraband, 2022. . 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 Boydell & Brewer is an academic press based in Woodbridge, Suffolk, England, that specializes in publishing historical and critical works. In addition to British and general history, the company publishes three series devoted to studies, edition ...

, 2023. . Schofield contributes the chapter "The Three-Legged Stool: Wolves, Shepherds and Sheep".

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Schofield, Lee Year of birth missing (living people) English nature writers Living people