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

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For inspiration, Schofield makes sojourns to Scotland, Norway and Italy, and even other parts of Cumbria like so-called Wild Ennerdale. This provides a pleasant interlude for the reader and is quite eye-opening. I had no idea either that there were these other landscapes so closely matching the Lakes, or that they were so significantly better managed. The Lakes, and the English landscape more generally, really is in bad shape - yikes. Thank you Greta’: natural solutions to UK flooding climb the agenda. Interviewed as part of wider piece on natural flood management. The Guardian/April 2020 A Landscape of Ghosts Article for the Waterstones blog, to coincide with the publication of Wild Fell, published Feb 2022. www.waterstones.com/blog/lee-schofield-on-lake-districts-ecological-ghosts

This book is everything we need to hear right now in what are quite frankly worrying times for nature in Great Britain. This book really is hope, it's hope because it tells a story not just of what could be, but of what is actually coming to be at the wonderful place that is Wild Haweswater. A poetic journey of restoring nature in an iconic landscape. Wild Fell informs and inspires. -- Jake Fiennes Wild Fell - well, to say I liked this book a lot would be an understatement, to say I loved this book a lot would be an understatement - I was truly enraptured by it. If he could chart his success by one thing it would be the widespread return of the globeflower. "I love it," he says. "It's part of the buttercup family and its lemon-yellow orbs appear sealed. Only one group of flies has worked out how to reach the nectar within. No one person and no one organisation can bring about the necessary change, but Schofield is doing more than most, and the vision he paints, of a fecund, collaborative, ecologically and economically sustainable future, is worth swallowing some pride for on both sides. The ranks of farmers willing to embrace or at least consider change swell year on year, and Lee is supported by a thriving local conservation community.

Saving nature is a tough job. In Wild Fell we get to understand why people do it: real soul-deep passion. Simon Barnes Beautifully written, with an urgent sense of the need to protect our endangered landscape, this is a manifesto for a wilder future. * Daily Mail * Nature Room 101 with Dr Amy Jane Beer & Lee Schofield. A light-hearted chat about nature for the Into The Wild Podcast with Ryan Dalton and Nadia Shaikh. Podcast/August 2023 Of tooth and claw. Seventh article in Shadow Species series focuses on wild cats. Cumbria Life/Dec 2020. Version also available as a WildHaweswater post Beautifully written, with an urgent sense of the need to protect our endangered landscape, this is a manifesto for a wilder future.”

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.” Hexham Book Festival is a Not For Profit CIC and delivers an annual festival that takes place in and around Hexham each year. 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." Avisionary, practical and lyricalbook on restoring land, fromone of the best in the game, on thefront line of nature restoration.” This is a book about rewilding and joins a growing list of good books on the subject which are essential reading for all those engaged in present-day UK nature conservation ( Feral, Wilding (my book of the year for 2018), Rebirding (one of my books of the year for 2019), Regeneration(one of my books of the year for 2021) and The Implausible Rewilding of the Pyrenees (my book of the year for 2021)).Warm, personal, political and detailed, Wild Fell invites people into the evolving conversation about the future of our natural world. * Cumbria Life * 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.

Lee Schofield's Wild Fell is a soaring elegy to nature, a book infused with a deep love of place, and a stirring call to restore wildlife to our landscapes. Written with wit, verve and humility, Wild Fell is above all a story of hope, weaving together deep insights about botany and the history of the land with a wisdom won through years of practical experience. Guy Shrubsole 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. 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 Hexham Book Group's meets on the second Tuesday of the month at 7.30pm in Scott's Café at the Forum Cinema, Hexham. 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

Saving nature is a tough job. In Wild Fell we get to understand why people do it: real soul-deep passion." 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.

Wild Fell leaves you in no doubt that if we don't protect our wild blooms, there won't be any bugs and there won't be any birds and, ultimately, any people. * BBC Countryfile Magazine * Balancing culture and nature in the Lake District. Co-written with Malcolm Ausden, Danny Teasdale and David Hampson. British Wildlife/April 2020

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Plant thefts are on the rise – and here’s why your garden could be at risk. Interviewed for an article on plant thefts, where I talk about the theft of pyramidal bugle from a remote crag in the Lake District. Telegraph/February 2021 Depressed and demoralised, he took up running to improve his mental health and one day, out jogging, had an epiphany. 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 Across the Lake District there are groups of people trying to change things, experimenting with different paths. People trying to see if there are different healthier ways, ones that provide a long-term future for people and wildlife, together. One such group is the RSPB in Haweswater, Lee Schofield is one of the rangers there and this is the story of their journey.