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Lee Schofield | |
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| Born | Scotland |
| Education | Imperial College London (MSc) |
| Occupation(s) | conservationist, writer |
| Notable work | Wild Fell: Fighting for Nature on a Lake District Hill Farm |
| Awards | Richard Jefferies Award |
| Website | leeschofield |
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]
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 subsequent academic publications, [6] [7] he investigated social attitudes to large mammal reintroductions in the Scottish Highlands, a subject he would later return to in his writing. [8]
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, [9] who own the Haweswater Reservoir and the 10,000 hectares of catchment land around it. [10] The part of the catchment that falls under the RSPB and United Utilities partnership is managed for the benefit of water, wildlife and people. [11] Major programmes of woodland, bog, hay meadow and river restoration [12] [13] 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, [9] resulting in increases in a wide range of species, including Atlantic salmon, [14] tree pipit, [15] red grouse, marsh fritillary butterfly, [16] water vole [17] 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. [18] [19] [20]
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] [21] Wild Fell won the Richard Jefferies Award in 2022, [22] and was Highly Commended in the James Cropper Wainwright Prize for Writing on Conservation in the same year. [23]
Schofield regularly gives talks and interviews [24] about his work, and has contributed to several anthologies, [25] [26] co-authored academic papers, [27] [28] [6] and written for magazines, including British Wildlife, [29] Inkcap Journal, [30] Cumbria Life and BBC Wildlife.
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