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Wild Fell: Fighting for nature on a Lake District hill farm

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Much of the appeal of Wild Fell stems from the fluency with which Lee Schofield conveys the intimate knowledge and deep feeling he has developed for the Haweswater landscape, his own personal commitment to enriching and developing it, and the unabashed delight he takes from each sign of progressive change. It is a highly personal story as well as a thoroughly documented account of a complex and ongoing conservation project, a combination which should earn it the wide readership it deserves.” Professor Barry Sloan, Chair of the panel of judges for the Richard Jefferies Award It was a tragic day for the nation's wildlife when England's last and loneliest golden eagle died in an unmarked spot among the remote eastern fells of the Lake District., but the fight to restore the landscape had already begun. Saving nature is a tough job. In Wild Fell we get to understand why people do it: real soul-deep passion. -- Simon Barnes Exmoor rewilding. Guest blog for Mark Avery about the controversy around a vision for nature recovery in Exmoor National Park. markavery.info/16 Nov 2020 A Future For The Lakes: What if nature had time to recover? Article with visualisations for Inkcap Journal, published Feb 2022. www.inkcapjournal.co.uk/a-future-for-the-lakes/

Rewilding a Lake District hill farm with Lee Schofield. Interviewed for the Rewilding The World Podcast with Ben Goldsmith. Podcast/November 2023 A passionate, haunting yet optimistic account of the battle to heal a damaged landscape and restore nature to a corner of the Lake District. -- Dave Goulson Restoration in the Lake District. Interview to talk about river restoraion. BBC Radio 4 Open Country/August 2020

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Like the rivers it has rebent, the Haweswater project is re-wiggling farming into a more sustainable alignment with nature. And by similarly refusing to operate in siloed straight lines, Schofield's own journey towards greater collaboration may have lessons to teach both of the UK's rural tribes. New Statesman Like the rivers it has rebent, the Haweswater project is re-wiggling farming into a more sustainable alignment with nature. And by similarly refusing to operate in siloed straight lines, Schofield's own journey towards greater collaboration may have lessons to teach both of the UK's rural tribes." As the competing needs of agriculture and conservation jostle for ascendency, land management in Britain has reached a tipping point. Candid, raw and searingly honest, Lee Schofield offers a naturalist's perspective of the challenges unfolding in the ancient yet ever-changing landscape of Haweswater and shares with us his gloriously vibrant vision for the future."

Most depressing is the scale of opposition the RSPB faces for its plans in the Lakes. Landowners and farmers see them as upending years of farming methods (despite, as Schofield points out, these methods being relatively recent innovations in terms of their intensity) which have resulted in the famous landscapes we know today. Even the Lake District's UNESCO World Heritage listing focuses more on preserving the farming landscape as it is now than protecting or restoring nature. In a country defined as the seventh most nature depleted on Earth, in a region plagued by flooding and climate-chaos, here comes Lee Schofield's brilliant book full of positive action and hope for the future. Wild Fell is a record of environmental achievement, of the RSPB's mission to restore the places and wild nature of Haweswater. But it's also a political tract, and throws down a gauntlet to us all to make the Lake District a national park that is genuinely worthy of the title." Wild Fell is a call to recognise that the solutions for a richer world lie at our feet; by focusing on flowers, we can rebuild landscapes fit to welcome the majestic golden eagle again.Endangered plant species thefts on the rise, conservationists warn. Interviewed to talk about the theft of pyramidal bugle from its only location in the wild in England. The Telegraph/Feb 2020 This was a really interesting book. As someone who's involved in restoration in the States, I was particularly thrilled to listen to Lee describe the challenges and successes of restoration in England. The conflicts with the farming community, the joys of seeing salmon return, were all familiar territory, but some of the solutions were different and innovative. It was a great reminder that my region of the world is not in a vacuum and there are people everywhere dealing with the same or similar challenges.

From last year’s Wainwright Prize shortlist. I took it along on a trip to Cumbria earlier in the month and got a photo with it on location at Haweswater. I enjoyed reading Part 1 while in the area, but once I got home I had lost the impetus, so just skimmed to the end; Part 2, about inspiration drawn from other regenerative projects in Scotland, the Italian Alps and Norway feels less essential anyway. When Schofield writes about this, it is brilliant and makes for a riveting read. Unfortunately, he is two thirds of the way through the book before he even starts on this topic. The first two thirds is given up to accounts of various situations where he notices the decline in species compared to his childhood, an account of a month's plant hunting in Norway and an account of a family holiday in Italy. All this is interspersed with complaints about local farmers opposing what Schofield is 'trying to do' at Haweswater (except that he never explains what he IS trying to do!) and how he's had to have therapy to boost his self esteem because of the opposition.Schofield, L. (2005). Public Attitude Toward Mammal Reintroductions: A Highland Case Study. MSc. Imperial College, University of London. Accessible online As the competing needs of agriculture and conservation jostle for ascendency, land management in Britain has reached a tipping point. Candid, raw and searingly honest, Lee Schofield offers a naturalist's perspective of the challenges unfolding in the ancient yet ever-changing landscape of Haweswater and shares with us his gloriously vibrant vision for the future. -- Katharine Norbury Warm, personal, politicaland detailed, Wild Fell invites people into the evolving conversation about the future of our natural world” A thrilling nature-led recovery in the Lakes. Interviewed by John Craven for an article about Haweswater. Countryfile Magazine/August 2022 Beautiful, broken or both? Article for Love & Soil, a slow conversation between farmers and conservationists, published March 2021. leeschofield.co.uk/beautiful-broken-or-both

But it has come at a cost. There is no more sombre metaphor for this than the death of England's last golden eagle on the Lake's eastern fells in 2015 - two years after Lee arrived. Ironically, the birds were first drawn there because Haweswater was dammed to create a reservoir to supply water for industrial, over-populated e The first thing that stands out in this book is his knowledge of (and love for) plants – ferns, mosses, lichens, trees, even grasses, and above all, flowers; but more, how floral diversity in the uplands is the key, first to insect diversity and then to avian diversity. Get the plants right and everything else follows, all the way up to the eagles. One aspect of the book that particularly moved me was Schofield's account of how personally distressing his job can be sometimes, as farmers and others in the Lake District resist what he and the RSPB are trying to achieve. This kind of admission is something I rarely seem to read in books by male nature writers.The team's achievements, particularly on Mardale Common, where sheep numbers have been reduced, cattle and fell pony numbers have been increased, are fascinating to read about. The symbol of all this was the golden eagles. Once relatively common in England, the last pair lived at Haweswater before going locally extinct due to the absence of a thriving landscape of prey. The R-word can be alienating’: How Haweswater rewilding project aims to benefit all. Interviewed by Ben Martynoga about the increase in employment at Haweswater for the Guardian. Guardian/March 2023 Whether you remain sceptical or are already a fan of this approach to conservation, this book is highly recommended“ There's plenty of enjoyable reads out there. And I enjoyed this. But far more than that, I learnt a great deal about why our national parks are a natural disaster in the making, and what can be done to not only restore hope but to also take real action for nature's recovery.

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