Lee Schofield
Born
Scotland
EducationImperial College London (MSc)
Occupation(s)conservationist, writer
Notable workWild Fell: Fighting for Nature on a Lake District Hill Farm
AwardsRichard Jefferies Award
Websiteleeschofield.co.uk

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.

Selected publications

Books

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

Chapters

References

  1. ↑ "PEW Literary | Author | Lee Schofield". www.pewliterary.com. Retrieved 15 October 2023.
  2. 1 2 Beer, Amy-Jane (10 March 2022). "Wild Fell by Lee Schofield review – can the Lake District be rewilded?". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 14 October 2023.
  3. 1 2 3 Schofield, Lee (2022). Wild Fell: Fighting for Nature on a Lake District Hill Farm (1st ed.). Doubleday. ISBN 9780857527752.
  4. 1 2 "Meet the rewilders: Haweswater". Rewilding Britain. Retrieved 15 October 2023.
  5. 1 2 Schofield, Lee (September 2005). Public Attitude Toward Mammal Reintroductions: A Highland Case Study (PDF) (MSc thesis). Imperial College, London.
  6. 1 2 Nilsen, Erlend B; Milner-Gulland, E.J; Schofield, Lee; Mysterud, Atle; Stenseth, Nils Chr; Coulson, Tim (7 April 2007). "Wolf reintroduction to Scotland: public attitudes and consequences for red deer management". Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 274 (1612): 995–1003. doi:10.1098/rspb.2006.0369. ISSN 0962-8452. PMC 2141678. PMID 17264063.
  7. ↑ 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. ISBN 9781837650156.
  8. 1 2 Martynoga, Ben (10 March 2023). "'The R-word can be alienating': How Haweswater rewilding project aims to benefit all". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 15 October 2023.
  9. ↑ freshwaterblog (9 March 2022). "Restoring Wild Haweswater: an interview with Lee Schofield". The Freshwater Blog. Retrieved 15 October 2023.
  10. ↑ "RSPB and United Utilities sign up to shared vision in the North West". www.unitedutilities.com. Retrieved 15 October 2023.
  11. ↑ "The Shining River - RSPB England - Our work - The RSPB Community". community.rspb.org.uk. Retrieved 14 October 2023.
  12. ↑ Laville, Sandra (26 December 2022). "Diversity returns to Lakeland stream after restoration puts its bends back". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 14 October 2023.
  13. ↑ Correspondent, Tom Ball, Northern (15 October 2023). "Salmon breed again in 'rewiggled' Cumbrian river". The Times. ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved 15 October 2023.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  14. ↑ wildhaweswater (28 November 2019). "Woodland: A Nature-Based Solution to Climate Change". Wild Haweswater. Retrieved 15 October 2023.
  15. ↑ Barkham, Patrick (26 June 2023). "Endangered marsh fritillary butterfly makes a comeback in Lake District". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 15 October 2023.
  16. ↑ "Water voles brought back to the Lake District". BBC News. 17 August 2023. Retrieved 15 October 2023.
  17. ↑ "2022 UK River Prize | The RRC". www.therrc.co.uk. Retrieved 14 October 2023.
  18. ↑ "Conservation Awards and Wild Trout Hero Award 2017". Wild Trout Trust. Retrieved 14 October 2023.
  19. ↑ wildhaweswater (5 December 2022). "Cumbrian rivers project scoops prestigious European Riverprize". Wild Haweswater. Retrieved 15 October 2023.
  20. ↑ Collcutt, Deborah (1 March 2022). "The abuse hurt but Lee didn't give up on his Lakes dream". Express.co.uk. Retrieved 15 October 2023.
  21. ↑ "Wild Fell Wins Top Literary Prize for Nature Writing". Richard Jefferies Society. Archived from the original on 3 August 2023. Retrieved 15 October 2023.
  22. ↑ "The James Cropper Wainwright Prize Winners 2022". Wainwright Prize. Retrieved 14 October 2023.
  23. ↑ Bourke, India (2 March 2022). "Lee Schofield on how farming needs to re-wiggle its approach to nature". New Statesman. Retrieved 15 October 2023.
  24. ↑ Schofield, Lee (2022). "The Northern Hay Meadow". In Lloyd, Karen (ed.). North Country: An anthology of landscape and nature. Saraband. pp. 252–261. ISBN 9781913393403.
  25. ↑ Schofield, Lee (2022). "Tree Pipit". In Jewitt, Kit; Toms, Mike (eds.). Into the Red. British Trust for Ornithology. p. 136. ISBN 9781912642380.
  26. ↑ Monger, Felicity; V Spracklen, Dominick; J Kirkby, Mike; Schofield, Lee (January 2022). "The impact of semi‐natural broadleaf woodland and pasture on soil properties and flood discharge". Hydrological Processes. 36 (1). Bibcode:2022HyPr...36E4453M. doi:10.1002/hyp.14453. ISSN 0885-6087. S2CID 245186634.
  27. ↑ Ewing, S. R.; Menéndez, R.; Schofield, L.; Bradbury, R. B. (1 June 2020). "Vegetation composition and structure are important predictors of oviposition site selection in an alpine butterfly, the Mountain Ringlet Erebia epiphron". Journal of Insect Conservation. 24 (3): 445–457. doi:10.1007/s10841-020-00229-z. ISSN 1572-9753. S2CID 212732602.
  28. ↑ "Balancing culture and nature in the Lake District". British Wildlife. Retrieved 15 October 2023.
  29. ↑ Schofield, Lee (23 February 2022). "A Future For The Lakes". Inkcap Journal. Retrieved 14 October 2023.
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