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

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As a symbol of how fragmented and vulnerable so many of our wildlife habitats have become, this flower is important," says Lee. "But we've collected some seed and are regrowing it in our tree nursery and planting it out where it stands a better chance." Warm, personal, political and detailed, Wild Fell invites people into the evolving conversation about the future of our natural world."

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 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. But Lee says we all have a responsibility to care for the entire country - not just "honey spots" like the Lakes: "We have 20 million visitors a year, crazy numbers, and we need to make the whole of the UK appealing and accessible. Balancing culture and nature in the Lake District. Co-written with Malcolm Ausden, Danny Teasdale and David Hampson. British Wildlife/April 2020 Wild Felldocumentsa powerful journey through a bruised, beloved English landscape, expertly toldfrom Lee’s unique perspective. Sensitive,full of empathyand charged with a fierce, solution-based vision for a restorative, productive future alongside the natural world.I felt utterly compelled by his wise, deft prose, and am so grateful this book has been written. Aremarkabledebut.”

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 Beavers, Farming & Beyond! with Lee Schofield. Interviewed by Sophie Pavelle and Eva Bishop for the Beaver Trust’s Lodge Cast. Podcast/March 2023

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. 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 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. 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 for eagles again. A landscape of flowers is a landscape of hope. Warm, personal, political and detailed, Wild Fell invites people into the evolving conversation about the future of our natural world. * Cumbria Life *

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Ratty’s return. Fourth article in Shadow Species series focuses on water voles. Cumbria Life/Sept 2020. Version also available as a WildHaweswater post Reasoned, intelligent, compassionate, well-informed, this is a story of hope andrenewal for both nature and farming.’ Isabella Tree National Parks, Beauty & Riches. Guest blog for Mark Avery following the launch of UK National Parks in 100 Seconds film. markavery.info/12 Feb 2022 This book is subtitled “Fighting for nature in a Lake District hill farm” – while I find the word “fight” to be a bit over-combative, having read the book, it’s certainly a struggle. The farming community is a loyal group and having outsiders come in was never going to be an easy journey. The book outlines those challenges, but also the inspirational successes that can be achieved when you work with people.

The project took a leap of faith – to reduce sheep numbers and replace them with cattle and ponies, thus diversifying the grazing regime. At first, these changes were intensely unpopular among the wider community, but there is a slowly dawning realisation that undertaking landscape restoration for public goods such as water quality, flood amelioration and carbon sequestration, as well as the wildlife benefits, is also farming, and deserving of widespread public support at a time when, post-Brexit, agricultural subsidies are under growing scrutiny. My wife’s family heritage is rooted in the hill farms of the Lake District, and I’ve been fascinated by the history, nature and indeed the natural history of the fells of what is now Cumbria for as long as we’ve known each other. My father-in-law was born in a farmhouse, by a tarn, in a hamlet a few miles from a main road. Warm, personal, political and detailed, Wild Fell invites people into the evolving conversation about the future of our natural world. Cumbria Life A thrilling nature-led recovery in the Lakes. Interviewed by John Craven for an article about Haweswater. Countryfile Magazine/August 2022

It is the same rugged Lake District, beautiful and still accessible. The shape of the mountains is the same but it's got more trees and wildlife in it. We're seeing red kites returning and the critical thing is having sheep on enclosed land rather than wandering all over the place," Lee says. The bar will open and supper will be served. Then settle down for the ultimate Lake District pub quiz, hosted by Mark Richards, with prizes. Raffle, with proceeds going to Ambleside Action for a Future.

Nilsen, E. B., Milner-Gulland, E. J., Schofield, L., Mysterud, A., Stenseth, N. C., & Coulson, T. (2007). Wolf reintroduction to Scotland: public attitudes and consequences for red deer management. Proceedings. Biological sciences, 274(1612), 995–1002. Accessible online The names of fields can help us understand how the rural landscape has evolved over the centuries. In this illustrated talk, Angus , Professor Emeritus at Lancaster University, considers how names were originally coined to record a field's use, what it looked like or who owned it. Recorded on vintage maps and sometimes preserved in the memory of older residents, field-names are a goldmine of information for local historians and a critical part of rural heritage. 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 The judges are drawn from the Richard Jefferies Society and their sponsors, the White Horse Bookshop, Marlborough who had the difficult choice of selecting an overall winner from a highly commendable shortlist of books: 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.Schofield, L. (2005). Public Attitude Toward Mammal Reintroductions: A Highland Case Study. MSc. Imperial College, University of London. Accessible online Whether you remain sceptical or are already a fan of this approach to conservation, this book is highly recommended“ It's one of many successful projects Lee has overseen. Using drone technology and ancient maps, straightened rivers have been returned to their natural meandering course and salmon numbers have swelled because they are now able to lay eggs in sheltered bends. Following the chance discovery of a battered scrapbook in a Carlisle auction house, retired TV director Gary embarked on a remarkable journey to unearth the identity of its owner. Intrigued by what he found in the book – a treasure trove of pri nts, postcards, photographs and 40 beautiful watercolours that told of an undiscovered Cumbrian artistic talent – Gary's research took him from Carlisle down through the Lake District to Barrow-in-Furness, then on into Scotland, Wales and even further afield to Canada, Sweden and East Africa. Gary recounts the detective work that built a worldwide community and that was able, in time, to put a face to the scrapbook's enigmatic owner.