Lee Schofield

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.