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Wild Fell: Fighting for Nature on a Lake District Hill Farm
In 2015, England's last and loneliest golden eagle died in an unmarked spot among the remote eastern fells of the Lake District. It was a tragic day for the nation's wildlife, but the fight to restore the landscape had already begun.
Lee Schofield, ecologist and site manager for RSPB Haweswater is leading efforts to breathe life back into two hill farms and their thirty square kilometres of sprawling upland habitat. The farms sit at the edge of the region's largest reservoir, beneath which lie the remains of a submerged village. The area's history has been a turbulent one for both its people and its wildlife, leaving its habitats in tatters.
In the search for inspiration, Lee sought out England's rarest mountain flower and travelled from the wild fells of Norway to the pristine meadows of the Alps. Informed, too, by the local land, its history and the people who have shaped it, Lee and his team have remeandered a straightened river and are repairing damaged wetlands, meadows and woods. Each year, the landscape is becoming richer, wilder and better able to withstand the shocks of a changing climate.
But in the contested landscape of the Lake District, change is not always welcomed, and success relies on finding a balance between rewilding and respecting cherished farming traditions. This is not only a story of nature in recovery, it is also the story of Lee's personal connection to place, and the highs and lows of working for nature amid fierce opposition.
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.
Lee Schofield, ecologist and site manager for RSPB Haweswater is leading efforts to breathe life back into two hill farms and their thirty square kilometres of sprawling upland habitat. The farms sit at the edge of the region's largest reservoir, beneath which lie the remains of a submerged village. The area's history has been a turbulent one for both its people and its wildlife, leaving its habitats in tatters.
In the search for inspiration, Lee sought out England's rarest mountain flower and travelled from the wild fells of Norway to the pristine meadows of the Alps. Informed, too, by the local land, its history and the people who have shaped it, Lee and his team have remeandered a straightened river and are repairing damaged wetlands, meadows and woods. Each year, the landscape is becoming richer, wilder and better able to withstand the shocks of a changing climate.
But in the contested landscape of the Lake District, change is not always welcomed, and success relies on finding a balance between rewilding and respecting cherished farming traditions. This is not only a story of nature in recovery, it is also the story of Lee's personal connection to place, and the highs and lows of working for nature amid fierce opposition.
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.
352 pages, Hardcover
First published February 24, 2022
84 people are currently reading
2000 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 108 reviews
November 13, 2022
It has been a while since I have been to the Lake District but I remember walking the fells and enjoying the fresh air and views. Whilst it feels wild and bleak, it is a landscape that has been managed by man for hundreds of years. I have very little recognition of seeing much in the way of wildlife, thinking about it now, it just seemed to be a partially sterile landscape, with not much opportunity for life to thrive.
One of the people trying to bring life back to these hills is Lee Schofield. He is the site manager for RSPB Haweswater and he is responsible for two hill farms coving thirty square kilometres of the uplands. They are close to the district’s largest reservoir and he along with other employees and stakeholders are slowly returning the landscape to a place that suits wildlife as well as farm animals.
Fighting the entrenched views is actually not helped by the place being designated a UNESCO world heritage site. That seemed to focus on the cultural heritage more than the possibilities for rewilding and restoring habitats for animals such pine marten and birds like the corncrake that are just about surviving. Learning how others are tackling similar issues will take him to Norway and Italy to see how they manage and it gives him a lift as well as a raft of ideas.
But what he needs most every day is resilience. Dealing with people who don’t care a single iota about the perilous state of the wildlife in the area is wearing. Where Isabella Tree in Wilding shows what can be done when you have complete control of the lands that you own, the reality of most attempts are rewilding is going to be much closer to this; the reigning back in of ambitions because of the restrictions of various stakeholders, the resistance that people have to change and always battling the system that suits the vested interests of large landholders.
Schofield is passionate about the natural world and that comes across on every page, in this, his first book. It is not an easy read as he has to battle against the tide of opinion from farmers who have been there for many generations. It is not always an easy task and he does sometimes get despondent with all that he is pushing against. But over the course of the book, he demonstrates that it is possible to make progress and to find a way that suits both farming and nature. I thought that this was well worth reading for a realistic view of returning a landscape to suit the natural world. Highly recommended reading.
One of the people trying to bring life back to these hills is Lee Schofield. He is the site manager for RSPB Haweswater and he is responsible for two hill farms coving thirty square kilometres of the uplands. They are close to the district’s largest reservoir and he along with other employees and stakeholders are slowly returning the landscape to a place that suits wildlife as well as farm animals.
Fighting the entrenched views is actually not helped by the place being designated a UNESCO world heritage site. That seemed to focus on the cultural heritage more than the possibilities for rewilding and restoring habitats for animals such pine marten and birds like the corncrake that are just about surviving. Learning how others are tackling similar issues will take him to Norway and Italy to see how they manage and it gives him a lift as well as a raft of ideas.
But what he needs most every day is resilience. Dealing with people who don’t care a single iota about the perilous state of the wildlife in the area is wearing. Where Isabella Tree in Wilding shows what can be done when you have complete control of the lands that you own, the reality of most attempts are rewilding is going to be much closer to this; the reigning back in of ambitions because of the restrictions of various stakeholders, the resistance that people have to change and always battling the system that suits the vested interests of large landholders.
Schofield is passionate about the natural world and that comes across on every page, in this, his first book. It is not an easy read as he has to battle against the tide of opinion from farmers who have been there for many generations. It is not always an easy task and he does sometimes get despondent with all that he is pushing against. But over the course of the book, he demonstrates that it is possible to make progress and to find a way that suits both farming and nature. I thought that this was well worth reading for a realistic view of returning a landscape to suit the natural world. Highly recommended reading.
January 27, 2022
I was blown away by this book. A totally unexpected joy. What is so wonderful about it is the way in which Lee’s passion and belief in what he’s doing shines through. The book is full of names of flowers, trees, animals and what i would call “proper” terminology, but the real skill is how Lee connects the science with personal experience and storytelling, and it’s that skill that makes Wild Fell so readable.
I came away from reading this book feeling knowledgable, nourished but perhaps most importantly energised with the same passion that Lee clearly has for a sustainable countryside.
I came away from reading this book feeling knowledgable, nourished but perhaps most importantly energised with the same passion that Lee clearly has for a sustainable countryside.
July 22, 2022
I must declare some bias in reviewing this book, in that I live in the area, and know most of the sites the author refers to in Naddle, Swindale and Haweswater well - or at leasr I thought I knew them well.
There is one thing that Schofield doesn't address in the narrative though, that this is, if you like, unfashionable Lakes, we don't get very many visitors. There isn't the infrastructure of pubs, cafes, souvenir and outdoor shops, the nearest are at least a 40 minute drive away.
As well as I hope this book does, and it has made the Wainwright Longlist, purely selfishly, I hope it doesn't result in a huge influx of visitors to the area. It is an extremely beautiful area, and most readers will want to visit having read this, let's hope they just don't all come at once..
From golden eagles, to the submerging of villages for the construction of the reservoir, to the Corpse Road, this serves as a monument to the history of the area, though its raison d'etre is the story of Schofield and his team at the RSPB as they attempt to recover the area to its former glory.
Achieving any sort of change on the Mardale and Bampton Commons has been immensely difficult because of the various commoners associations and their tendency towards inertia; believing that what has been the situation for the past 70 years, is what has always been there.
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.
I have read quite a few books about rewilding recently, almost all of which contain valuable snippets of information, but very few stand out, as this one does, in that is is gripping and readable throughout. This is very much to Schofield's credit. Its a fine balancing act to equally interest beginners to the subject, those with no experience of the Lake District fells, and people like me, who know it well and have a keen interest in rewilding.
There is one thing that Schofield doesn't address in the narrative though, that this is, if you like, unfashionable Lakes, we don't get very many visitors. There isn't the infrastructure of pubs, cafes, souvenir and outdoor shops, the nearest are at least a 40 minute drive away.
As well as I hope this book does, and it has made the Wainwright Longlist, purely selfishly, I hope it doesn't result in a huge influx of visitors to the area. It is an extremely beautiful area, and most readers will want to visit having read this, let's hope they just don't all come at once..
From golden eagles, to the submerging of villages for the construction of the reservoir, to the Corpse Road, this serves as a monument to the history of the area, though its raison d'etre is the story of Schofield and his team at the RSPB as they attempt to recover the area to its former glory.
Achieving any sort of change on the Mardale and Bampton Commons has been immensely difficult because of the various commoners associations and their tendency towards inertia; believing that what has been the situation for the past 70 years, is what has always been there.
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.
I have read quite a few books about rewilding recently, almost all of which contain valuable snippets of information, but very few stand out, as this one does, in that is is gripping and readable throughout. This is very much to Schofield's credit. Its a fine balancing act to equally interest beginners to the subject, those with no experience of the Lake District fells, and people like me, who know it well and have a keen interest in rewilding.
August 30, 2023
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.
Schofield has been the site manager at RSPB Haweswater since 2013. Like Nicola Chester, his fellow shortlistee (for On Gallows Down), he’s been mired in the bitter struggle to balance sustainable farming with conservation of a beloved place. And like fellow Lakeland farmer (and previous Wainwright Prize winner for English Pastoral) James Rebanks, he’s trying to be respectful of tradition while also restoring valuable habitats. He has caught so much flak simply for reducing sheep numbers on the hills to prevent overgrazing. This conservation-oriented memoir is nuanced (“my attention is split between the macro and micro, between the panorama and its texture, the scene and its characters”) if surprisingly plant-heavy.
Schofield has been the site manager at RSPB Haweswater since 2013. Like Nicola Chester, his fellow shortlistee (for On Gallows Down), he’s been mired in the bitter struggle to balance sustainable farming with conservation of a beloved place. And like fellow Lakeland farmer (and previous Wainwright Prize winner for English Pastoral) James Rebanks, he’s trying to be respectful of tradition while also restoring valuable habitats. He has caught so much flak simply for reducing sheep numbers on the hills to prevent overgrazing. This conservation-oriented memoir is nuanced (“my attention is split between the macro and micro, between the panorama and its texture, the scene and its characters”) if surprisingly plant-heavy.
September 30, 2024
3.5 stars. I expected more birds in this book, but it was still very interesting and educational. I'd like to visit Haweswater in the future.
March 13, 2022
I was attracted to Wild Fell by Lee Schofield, as I had visited Haweswater many times to catch glimpses of England's only resident golden eagle - a lone male, up until his disappearance and presumed death in 2015. The opening of the book, and the marketing hint at this being a significant part of the story, yet it turns out to only be the beginning.
Reading the book did give me a new appreciation for wild flowers and flora in general, as this was where Schofield concentrated much of his focus. He describes in intricate detail how increasing the biodiversity of plants leads to healthier ecosystems, and healthier livestock in the right circumstances. From climbing the fells to exploring Norway's mountain valleys, it is clear Schofield is invigorated and inspired most when nature and farming works in harmony.
However, I did find the book a little textbook-ish. From RSPB bureaucracy to farmer-bias, Schofield's writing style can come over a little down the nose. Overall, for me, although Schofield had a great deal of passion - it failed to engage me as much as I was hoping it would. But it does provide vivid descriptions of the stunning lakeland, many of of its fauna, and most of its flora!
Reading the book did give me a new appreciation for wild flowers and flora in general, as this was where Schofield concentrated much of his focus. He describes in intricate detail how increasing the biodiversity of plants leads to healthier ecosystems, and healthier livestock in the right circumstances. From climbing the fells to exploring Norway's mountain valleys, it is clear Schofield is invigorated and inspired most when nature and farming works in harmony.
However, I did find the book a little textbook-ish. From RSPB bureaucracy to farmer-bias, Schofield's writing style can come over a little down the nose. Overall, for me, although Schofield had a great deal of passion - it failed to engage me as much as I was hoping it would. But it does provide vivid descriptions of the stunning lakeland, many of of its fauna, and most of its flora!
August 11, 2024
I've visited the Lake District once for an all-too-brief stay (in a damp October...while still suffering from mono/tonsillitis...) and read a bit about Beatrix Potter's early efforts to preserve the area, and like many people, I think its rugged, imposing landscape is breathtaking. I'm always interested in a good conservation story, too, so I was excited to come across WILD FELL -- and if the Lake District setting wasn't enough, that spectacular cover would have been enough to win me over.
I listened to the audiobook narrated by the author, and for me that was a slightly odd experience. On the one hand, it brings you that much closer to the narrative; on the other hand, it can make it feel more keenly that you're being sold that narrative. WILD FELL definitely has a didactic purpose; it's laying out the need for land restoration and conservation and the ways the RSPB and other, partner organizations are bringing it about. I empathize and agree with much of it, but sometimes found the tone to be overly on-the-nose. It shaded too far into the realm of brochure-for-the-RSPB for me to get as thoroughly absorbed in it as I'd have liked. I think that was why it took me longer to finish the audiobook than I'd expected.
That said, I do want to add that Schofield is a good writer and can turn an excellent phrase. There were a number of times where an analogy or a word choice made me really appreciate his ability. In terms of prose, the only things that tripped me up were a tendency to switch between present and past tense in different scenes/chapters (I never understood why this was the case) and the fact that the casual style leads Schofield to drop several expletives or profanities that caught me by surprise and didn't feel at all necessary to the sort of book this is. It's only a handful of times, but those handful irritated me.
While I didn't exactly find the book thrilling, I very much appreciated learning more about the British landscape and conservation efforts [I keep typing 'conversation'...]. I was aware that Britain has no real wilderness and that its biodiversity has taken a huge hit thanks to the intensive farming methods employed since World War II, and it was both sobering to read about this in more detail and encouraging to hear about the changes being made to remedy the problem. It's fascinating -- and a little amusing -- to learn that many of the 'new' strategies are really just reintroductions of very old farming methods, from coppicing to crop rotation to pasture/livestock rotation to diversified rather than monoculture farming. Schofield's special passion is plant-life, especially wildflowers, and I was intrigued to learn that whereas sheep are specialty grazers who lay waste to delicate plants and allow hardy grasses to dominate where they are pastured for long stretches of time, cattle and horses are more beneficial to plant diversity because they keep the grass in check, allowing for a broader range of species to assert themselves in the landscape. Thus, removing sheep from an area for a time and grazing cattle/horses there instead can allow the land to regenerate.
One of the significant points of WILD FELL is that hill farming doesn't need to stop, and that humans don't need to entirely "let go and let nature" -- farming can go on, but the methods need to change (back) to ones that are more in tune with what the land can sustain. Schofield takes an entirely evolutionary and apparently godless perspective on this issue, sadly: nature is more or less personified (shading into deification) and every beautiful discussion of how its parts interlock is couched in terms of how x species and y species evolved alongside each other -- no mention of design or purpose here, thank you very much! Yet the intricacies, as ever, point unmistakably to design.
Even more interesting from my perspective is that the very methods being promoted for land restoration are the methods God built into his instructions for how Israel was to interact with the land. I can't count the times Schofield talked about the principle of allowing the land to rest -- if not absolutely (though this in some cases is what's needed), then by allowing it to rest from a specific use. Rest, he points out with a sense of surprise and wonder, can do miracles for restoring a landscape that seemed like it couldn't ever recover. This is precisely the concept of sabbath for land and animals! The Bible is often offhandedly treated as though it says nothing about humans and nature except the so-called 'dominion thesis', but it actually has a lot more to say about how nature has been made to suffer under sin/been subjected to futility and how God's people are intended to steward it faithfully as a co-worshipper and co-receiver of salvation (Romans 8:18-25). The principles of land care that Schofield discusses have really already been laid out for us by God himself, surprise surprise.
Still, none of this is simple in the world we live in. One thing I didn't think Schofield dealt with quite as much as it perhaps requires is the economic factor. He makes comparisons to similar habitats in Norway and the Alps without paying much heed to the political and social make-ups of those different regions. He also brings up the fact that the damage to ecosystems wrought by policies following WWII were done because of food shortages, but that raises the uncomfortable question: could the same thing happen again? Can the U.K. afford to step back from intensive farming? If there were a major war, where would the island nation's food come from? Given how different the world and the global food market is now, maybe this is irrelevant? Anyway, just saying that people should eat less meat doesn't strike me as a very reasonable solution to a big challenge. I don't know the answer myself, but while I have no doubt Schofield is aware that it is a major issue, he doesn't really tackle it.
Oh yeah, and I want to go visit the Haweswater badger hide. :(
I listened to the audiobook narrated by the author, and for me that was a slightly odd experience. On the one hand, it brings you that much closer to the narrative; on the other hand, it can make it feel more keenly that you're being sold that narrative. WILD FELL definitely has a didactic purpose; it's laying out the need for land restoration and conservation and the ways the RSPB and other, partner organizations are bringing it about. I empathize and agree with much of it, but sometimes found the tone to be overly on-the-nose. It shaded too far into the realm of brochure-for-the-RSPB for me to get as thoroughly absorbed in it as I'd have liked. I think that was why it took me longer to finish the audiobook than I'd expected.
That said, I do want to add that Schofield is a good writer and can turn an excellent phrase. There were a number of times where an analogy or a word choice made me really appreciate his ability. In terms of prose, the only things that tripped me up were a tendency to switch between present and past tense in different scenes/chapters (I never understood why this was the case) and the fact that the casual style leads Schofield to drop several expletives or profanities that caught me by surprise and didn't feel at all necessary to the sort of book this is. It's only a handful of times, but those handful irritated me.
While I didn't exactly find the book thrilling, I very much appreciated learning more about the British landscape and conservation efforts [I keep typing 'conversation'...]. I was aware that Britain has no real wilderness and that its biodiversity has taken a huge hit thanks to the intensive farming methods employed since World War II, and it was both sobering to read about this in more detail and encouraging to hear about the changes being made to remedy the problem. It's fascinating -- and a little amusing -- to learn that many of the 'new' strategies are really just reintroductions of very old farming methods, from coppicing to crop rotation to pasture/livestock rotation to diversified rather than monoculture farming. Schofield's special passion is plant-life, especially wildflowers, and I was intrigued to learn that whereas sheep are specialty grazers who lay waste to delicate plants and allow hardy grasses to dominate where they are pastured for long stretches of time, cattle and horses are more beneficial to plant diversity because they keep the grass in check, allowing for a broader range of species to assert themselves in the landscape. Thus, removing sheep from an area for a time and grazing cattle/horses there instead can allow the land to regenerate.
One of the significant points of WILD FELL is that hill farming doesn't need to stop, and that humans don't need to entirely "let go and let nature" -- farming can go on, but the methods need to change (back) to ones that are more in tune with what the land can sustain. Schofield takes an entirely evolutionary and apparently godless perspective on this issue, sadly: nature is more or less personified (shading into deification) and every beautiful discussion of how its parts interlock is couched in terms of how x species and y species evolved alongside each other -- no mention of design or purpose here, thank you very much! Yet the intricacies, as ever, point unmistakably to design.
Even more interesting from my perspective is that the very methods being promoted for land restoration are the methods God built into his instructions for how Israel was to interact with the land. I can't count the times Schofield talked about the principle of allowing the land to rest -- if not absolutely (though this in some cases is what's needed), then by allowing it to rest from a specific use. Rest, he points out with a sense of surprise and wonder, can do miracles for restoring a landscape that seemed like it couldn't ever recover. This is precisely the concept of sabbath for land and animals! The Bible is often offhandedly treated as though it says nothing about humans and nature except the so-called 'dominion thesis', but it actually has a lot more to say about how nature has been made to suffer under sin/been subjected to futility and how God's people are intended to steward it faithfully as a co-worshipper and co-receiver of salvation (Romans 8:18-25). The principles of land care that Schofield discusses have really already been laid out for us by God himself, surprise surprise.
Still, none of this is simple in the world we live in. One thing I didn't think Schofield dealt with quite as much as it perhaps requires is the economic factor. He makes comparisons to similar habitats in Norway and the Alps without paying much heed to the political and social make-ups of those different regions. He also brings up the fact that the damage to ecosystems wrought by policies following WWII were done because of food shortages, but that raises the uncomfortable question: could the same thing happen again? Can the U.K. afford to step back from intensive farming? If there were a major war, where would the island nation's food come from? Given how different the world and the global food market is now, maybe this is irrelevant? Anyway, just saying that people should eat less meat doesn't strike me as a very reasonable solution to a big challenge. I don't know the answer myself, but while I have no doubt Schofield is aware that it is a major issue, he doesn't really tackle it.
Oh yeah, and I want to go visit the Haweswater badger hide. :(
May 18, 2024
A positive story for once about how we can make things better for nature & the environment. The author is the site manager for the RSPB reserve at Haweswater in the Lake District. Whilst he also writes about visits to Norway & the Italian Alps he is able to bring his wild flower experiences back to the Haweswater project. An uplifting read.
April 25, 2022
This book was a joy to read. Beautifully written, interesting and so full of hope.
November 2, 2024
Well written and engaging. Would have got an extra star for more on birds and less on flowers!
July 29, 2025
Personally nostalgic and wistful. Could’ve had more structure.
May 21, 2022
Is it time for me to drop everything and pursue my new calling as a conservationist and restorative farming advocate?? I’m going to be using his bibliography to build my “to read” list. Absolutely loved it. Loved reliving so many moments in the Lakes. Although I sometimes felt defensive, offended that anyone could find fault with my beloved Lakes, I am enthusiastic about the work happening there to restore nature and farming to a more sustainable balance. Even with the rosiest-colored glasses on, I can understand the desire to improve what you love best precisely because you love it best. (Lightbulb moment: maybe that’s how God feels about us?? Oof.)
November 26, 2022
Honestly, I picked up this book only because of the gorgeous cover - but I ended up enjoying it a lot more than I expected. It took me a while to finish it, but I've come away with a completely new understanding of why our landscapes are the way they are and what they could be with the stewardship described in this book. I'm really looking forward to my next trip to the lake district and looking at the land in a new light.
September 7, 2022
A brilliant account of how conservation and farming don't need to be at odds with one another - calling for change and celebrating the ongoing work of Lee and his team at Haweswater, working on behalf of the RSPB, alongside a number of other organisations. Lee's passion for the wildlife he is fighting for shines through the book. A rightfully deserved nominee of the Wainwright Prize.
October 6, 2022
Schofield, an RSPB Warden at Haweswater, tells his story of working to create an economically viable hill farm in the Lake District that allows space for nature. It’s both an education and inspirational. But overwhelmingly it’s his passion and grit for making a difference, his advocacy for wildflowers and his eternal hope for the planet that makes this such a great read.
April 17, 2022
Incredible! Everyone, and I mean everyone should read this book.
December 14, 2023
This is a book about the interface between farming and conservation. It is set in a particular place, Haweswater in the Lake District, Cumbria, England. But there are lessons here that are of not just national, but global significance given the ever-deepening climate crisis.
The sub-title of the book is a slightly unfortunate one, “Fighting for nature on a Lake District hill farm”. If you are involved in a fight, then you must pick a side. If there is much at stake in the fight, then it is human nature to view your side as the goodies and the opposing side as the baddies. This is the tension that Schofield juggles with throughout the book.
He is, of course, squarely in the conservation camp, and although his knowledge of farming and particularly farming in the Lake District is manifestly demonstrated here, it is, by and large the Lake District sheep farmer that he is fighting. So, his allies in the fight are variously described as “flinty and implacable”, broad-shouldered and built for an outdoor life of physical graft” and “dark-haired and broad-shouldered” (again, different person this time). Whereas the sheep farmers opposing Schofield are disembodied, angry, sometimes foul-mouthed voices. Let the reader build a mental picture of friend and foe.
I wonder how the farmers would have seen this struggle. Schofield views them as a powerful voice shaping policy in the Lake District National Park. They are much more likely to see themselves as individual tenant farmers, struggling to get by, custodians of a traditional stratified system of sheep rearing where fells, marginal land, meadows and lowland farms are all linked together. Then here comes this guy with a masters in Ecological Management and all the weight of the RSPB and United Utilities behind him telling them what to do. Undoubtedly such families feel threatened, perhaps even frightened by proposed developments. There is much at stake, pride and identity included.
There is of course a continuum in the farmer/conservationist scale of reckoning. At one end there are those farmers who are firmly entrenched in a model that ascribes little or no value to nature or biodiversity, at the other end are zealous rewilders who long to transition livestock farmers away from their traditional way of farming. Lee Schofield is somewhere in the middle and therefore has a vital role to play in this ongoing tussle between food and nature, farming and conservation, sheep and flowers. This is an important book, there is much at stake.
Fences are quite a feature in this book, ‘exclosure’ is an important facet of the work at Haweswater. The author, Carlos Wallace wrote, “Once you pick a side, you can straddle a fence.” Whilst we will always gravitate to one side or the other in any particular dispute or debate, the people we really need are the ones who will reach out to those on the other side, the people who will straddle the fence and see it from the other point of view. In a fight, exclusion polarises the struggle, inclusion brings hope of reconciliation.
So, this review is an appeal for no exclosures in our thinking and conversations around the farming/conservation interface. The real heroes of Wild Fell are those who have straddled the fence successfully and given us a glimpse of an altogether brighter future, where both livestock farmers and nature can flourish.
I really enjoyed Wild Fell even though I am more farmer than conservationist! But if you want to know who won this particular fight, then take note of the book cover, there are Belted Galloway cattle, Fell ponies, lots of flowers and a Golden Eagle, but not a sheep in sight.
The sub-title of the book is a slightly unfortunate one, “Fighting for nature on a Lake District hill farm”. If you are involved in a fight, then you must pick a side. If there is much at stake in the fight, then it is human nature to view your side as the goodies and the opposing side as the baddies. This is the tension that Schofield juggles with throughout the book.
He is, of course, squarely in the conservation camp, and although his knowledge of farming and particularly farming in the Lake District is manifestly demonstrated here, it is, by and large the Lake District sheep farmer that he is fighting. So, his allies in the fight are variously described as “flinty and implacable”, broad-shouldered and built for an outdoor life of physical graft” and “dark-haired and broad-shouldered” (again, different person this time). Whereas the sheep farmers opposing Schofield are disembodied, angry, sometimes foul-mouthed voices. Let the reader build a mental picture of friend and foe.
I wonder how the farmers would have seen this struggle. Schofield views them as a powerful voice shaping policy in the Lake District National Park. They are much more likely to see themselves as individual tenant farmers, struggling to get by, custodians of a traditional stratified system of sheep rearing where fells, marginal land, meadows and lowland farms are all linked together. Then here comes this guy with a masters in Ecological Management and all the weight of the RSPB and United Utilities behind him telling them what to do. Undoubtedly such families feel threatened, perhaps even frightened by proposed developments. There is much at stake, pride and identity included.
There is of course a continuum in the farmer/conservationist scale of reckoning. At one end there are those farmers who are firmly entrenched in a model that ascribes little or no value to nature or biodiversity, at the other end are zealous rewilders who long to transition livestock farmers away from their traditional way of farming. Lee Schofield is somewhere in the middle and therefore has a vital role to play in this ongoing tussle between food and nature, farming and conservation, sheep and flowers. This is an important book, there is much at stake.
Fences are quite a feature in this book, ‘exclosure’ is an important facet of the work at Haweswater. The author, Carlos Wallace wrote, “Once you pick a side, you can straddle a fence.” Whilst we will always gravitate to one side or the other in any particular dispute or debate, the people we really need are the ones who will reach out to those on the other side, the people who will straddle the fence and see it from the other point of view. In a fight, exclusion polarises the struggle, inclusion brings hope of reconciliation.
So, this review is an appeal for no exclosures in our thinking and conversations around the farming/conservation interface. The real heroes of Wild Fell are those who have straddled the fence successfully and given us a glimpse of an altogether brighter future, where both livestock farmers and nature can flourish.
I really enjoyed Wild Fell even though I am more farmer than conservationist! But if you want to know who won this particular fight, then take note of the book cover, there are Belted Galloway cattle, Fell ponies, lots of flowers and a Golden Eagle, but not a sheep in sight.
January 17, 2024
Such a beautifully written account of reintroducing the space & conditions required for nature (especially flowers, trees, birds) to flourish on a lakeland farm. Honest about the scale of the challenge and yet beautifully hopeful. The structure of the book which starts with a sober assessment of the current reality in the Lake District (vast overgrazing, hostility from farmers towards efforts for rebalancing, decline and loss of flower & bird species including the golden eagle), moves to a series of chapters on positive examples from Scotland, Norway, the Alps, and parts of the Lake District which suggest how things could be, and ending with a focus on the changes made on the RSPB farms and the positive effects they're having. The author ends with an inspiring vision of what the farms and the common land mountain tops they border could look like in 2050.
Throughout, the author's empathy for different positions (e.g. that of farmers) and his detailed knowledge and love for birds, flowers, and the natural world shine through. This book was a joy to read.
Throughout, the author's empathy for different positions (e.g. that of farmers) and his detailed knowledge and love for birds, flowers, and the natural world shine through. This book was a joy to read.
June 28, 2023
This might now be one of my favourite books. Some parts I found difficult to read just from the raw emotion of the stories from the place I feel such a deep connection to. It’s inspired me to learn more about wild flowers so I can spot them when I’m out on the fells, or not as the unfortunate case may be. Everyone should read this book. I especially loved hearing about the introduction of the belted-moos (as my mum calls them), I love seeing them out on the fells it brings me pure joy.
January 14, 2025
Very well written and informative. I learnt a lot about farming and environmental practices.
January 12, 2024
Vibey vibey, some great chapters where he gets inspired by visiting cool biodiverse locations which i loved, and overall very hopeful
April 6, 2024
I feel somewhat disappointed as I had expected Schofield’s account to be an English ‘Driving Over Lemons’ - this it was not. With little humour and almost as many lists as in Homer’s ‘Iliad’ this was a gritty and frequently repetitive read.
The final chapter made me increase the rating by a star, as I too could feel the joy Schofield takes from the land at Haweswater and appreciate the full circle (rather like a Gersmehl diagram) in that such careful management might once again bring golden eagles to England’s green and pleasant lands.
The final chapter made me increase the rating by a star, as I too could feel the joy Schofield takes from the land at Haweswater and appreciate the full circle (rather like a Gersmehl diagram) in that such careful management might once again bring golden eagles to England’s green and pleasant lands.
April 14, 2024
Loved this book - amazing what can be achieved and how quickly nature returns - on my list to visit
September 16, 2024
An absolute joy to read. An inspiration for farming and an easy to understand narrative as to just why nature and regeneration is so important. Lee’s passion truly shines through and his evocative imagery takes the reader along on his journey with him.
March 14, 2025
British ecologist and naturalist, Lee Schofield, was site manager for the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) at Haweswater in the Lake District National Park for over ten years where he oversaw pioneering conservation work across an upland mosaic of woodland, bog, mountain and meadow. Wild Fell details the challenges involved in working on the front line of Nature conservation in the uplands.
This wonderful book has delightful illustrations of native plants throughout with reference to local fauna and botanical treasures on every page. It records Lee's discovery of England's rarest mountain flower, the Pyramidal Bugle, a semi-evergreen perennial and member of the Mint family, found growing wild only in the higher altitudes.
In three parts from Imperfection to Inspiration to Intervention, Wild Fell charts a remarkable quest to breathe life back into two hill farms and thirty square kilometres of sprawling upland habitat. The farms sit at the edge of the region's largest reservoir with a history that has been turbulent for both its people and its wildlife, leaving the various habitats depleted and bereft of wildlife.
Lee's ultimate goal was to see the return of the Golden Eagle following the death of England's last and loneliest accipitridae who died in an unmarked spot among the remote eastern fells of the Lake District in 2015. It was a tragic day for the nation's wildlife, but the fight to restore the landscape had already begun.
Imperfection
One of the most striking revelations in Wild Fell is the fact that sheep are not a native species to the British Isles. Their wild ancestors came from Mesopotamia and have been domesticated here for at least 6,000 years. As Lee says, There were no sheep in the pre-human countryside. This is nothing in evolutionary time which means our native flora has not adapted to cope with the particular way that these species graze and browse.
As Lee explains: Sheep have small mouths that allow them to pick out sweeter, more delicate species, ignoring courser, less palatable ones, which end up dominating. He goes on to say: This is why, in addition to their often excessive numbers, sheep have had such a serious impact on our ecology compared to other grazers, and why our aim of improving the state of Haweswater's ecology while keeping sheep is such a challenge.
During a three week visit to Fidjadalen in South West Norway - an area very similar to the Lake District which is rich, vibrant and productive - Lee discovered that the Norweigian farming delegation have a very different approach to sheep grazing. Their average density is about one ewe to five hectares for four months a year compared to one ewe per hectare in the Lake District with sheep grazing the fells for much longer periods.
As Lee says: Norways' national flock numbers a little over two million, a figure that satisfies Norway's national demand - imports and exports are a tiny part of the market. The UK has over 23 million sheep, many of which are exported. There are nearly as many sheep in Cumbria as there are in the whole of Norway. Lee realised that moving towards a lower density of sheep and adopting Norweigian farming methods might be a good way to restore the Lake District's upland habitats while maintaining the cultural heritage and traditions of hill farming.
Presenting this to Lake District farmers who have been rearing sheep with substantial government funding over many years was not received well. Lee earned the title of sheep-hater and it took many years to gradually bring about the required change. Acutely aware of the fact that nobody wants to hear an outsider suggesting that their way of life needs to change, Lee started talking to farmers to understand their arguments and fears, knowing that change could only happen when farmers chose to bring it about themselves.
Inspiration
On his trip to Norway, Lee learned a great deal about how to manage the depleted land in his care and how to bring it back to its former glory. He was inspired to see how a farming system with sheep could work hand in glove with a rich natural upland environment.
One thing he didn't see growing in Fidjadalen was Bracken which is a big issue in the British Isles. As Lee says: It is most problematic in the hills and is considered dominant across more than 4 per cent of the entire upland area. At its most dense, bracken casts almost complete shade, so that few other plants can grow below it. Unfortunately, sheep don't like Bracken and can easily get lost inside a large bed which is a major problem for farming, just as it is for Nature and for access.
By carefully managing sheep grazing and introducing more outdoor cattle grazing, this problem is being resolved. The regular trampling of cattle and ponies seriously weakens the Bracken, allowing young Alders to pop up along the edges of streams, and Birch and Hazel to spread out of the woodland. This also enhances water quality by helping to rough up the land thus promoting the regeneration of trees and scrub, creating a more diverse landscape which works as a better filter for water.
As a sidenote, it seems to me that the Dartmoor National Park in Devon, England, would do well to follow the footsteps of Lee's endeavours. It's desolate landscape, as beautiful as it is with its expansive views and sense of remoteness and tranquillity, is being gradually eroded by the overgrazing of sheep and the annual burning of great swathes of Bracken, a traditional practice known as swaling which destroys habitats, stops scrub and trees from growing and damages peat beds.
The overgrazing of sheep left to graze freely throughout the year is particularly problematic as they nibble away at new Heather and Bilberry shoots which start to appear in late Winter. As a result, the Heather condition is progressively weakened and what was once a species-rich heath progressively becomes species-poor grassland.
Intervention
A key part of the rewilding project at Haweswater involved a partnership between RSPB and United Utilities to improve water catchment resilience. The aim was to improve the water quality of the most important drinking water source in north-west England.
Significant river restoration and peat bog restoration achieved through grip blocking more than 40 miles of moorland drains has created natural river bends that slow down the flow of water. This not only reduces flood risk but also creates gravelly shallows, ripples and ruffles that draw oxygen into the water's flow. The resulting riffles, bars, pools and islands provide a constantly changing habitat for a massive range of wildlife.
Tree planting has also been a major part of the restoration process with more than half a million trees planted by an army of volunteers over a fifteen year period. This has also helped to prevent flooding and keep insurance premiums down which as been a popular outcome for local residents.
The Haweswater Tree Nursery has created a load of brilliant opportunities for people with different skills to give something of themselves back to Nature and to build a lasting connection to a place. Using the seeds of native trees collected locally, the nursery produces thousands of Juniper, Hazel, Rowan, Wych Elm, Holly, Oak, Hawthorn, Birch, Aspen and Willow saplings every year.
Return of the Golden Eagle
In the last chapter, Future, Lee imagines returning to Haweswater a few weeks before his retirement on a perfect late May morning. The first Spring flowers are showing and there's a good growth of grass, thanks to the months of rest that these lambing fields have had over the Winter months.
To his delight, he encounters Red Squirrels, Badgers, an Osprey, a Pine Martin, a Red-Backed Shrike, a Water Vole, a Red Kite, Black Grouse, Barn Owls and Beavers along the way. Peat bogs have a decent covering of trees with a lush carpet of Bilberry, Cowberry and Crowberry growing below. Bluethroats are drawn to the Downy Willows planted twenty-five years ago as Green Hairsteaks are busy in the Bilberry and the ubiquitous Orange Tips are making the most of the last of the Cuckooflower.
Having coaxed Nature back, helping the landscape to function again, a beautiful Golden Eagle casts a shadow on the hill. She circles and fixes an eye on me, head tilted, before flying off over the wild landscape that she rules again.
[Direct quotes are included in the above text which I am unable to put into italics as there is only a plain text option].
This wonderful book has delightful illustrations of native plants throughout with reference to local fauna and botanical treasures on every page. It records Lee's discovery of England's rarest mountain flower, the Pyramidal Bugle, a semi-evergreen perennial and member of the Mint family, found growing wild only in the higher altitudes.
In three parts from Imperfection to Inspiration to Intervention, Wild Fell charts a remarkable quest to breathe life back into two hill farms and thirty square kilometres of sprawling upland habitat. The farms sit at the edge of the region's largest reservoir with a history that has been turbulent for both its people and its wildlife, leaving the various habitats depleted and bereft of wildlife.
Lee's ultimate goal was to see the return of the Golden Eagle following the death of England's last and loneliest accipitridae who died in an unmarked spot among the remote eastern fells of the Lake District in 2015. It was a tragic day for the nation's wildlife, but the fight to restore the landscape had already begun.
Imperfection
One of the most striking revelations in Wild Fell is the fact that sheep are not a native species to the British Isles. Their wild ancestors came from Mesopotamia and have been domesticated here for at least 6,000 years. As Lee says, There were no sheep in the pre-human countryside. This is nothing in evolutionary time which means our native flora has not adapted to cope with the particular way that these species graze and browse.
As Lee explains: Sheep have small mouths that allow them to pick out sweeter, more delicate species, ignoring courser, less palatable ones, which end up dominating. He goes on to say: This is why, in addition to their often excessive numbers, sheep have had such a serious impact on our ecology compared to other grazers, and why our aim of improving the state of Haweswater's ecology while keeping sheep is such a challenge.
During a three week visit to Fidjadalen in South West Norway - an area very similar to the Lake District which is rich, vibrant and productive - Lee discovered that the Norweigian farming delegation have a very different approach to sheep grazing. Their average density is about one ewe to five hectares for four months a year compared to one ewe per hectare in the Lake District with sheep grazing the fells for much longer periods.
As Lee says: Norways' national flock numbers a little over two million, a figure that satisfies Norway's national demand - imports and exports are a tiny part of the market. The UK has over 23 million sheep, many of which are exported. There are nearly as many sheep in Cumbria as there are in the whole of Norway. Lee realised that moving towards a lower density of sheep and adopting Norweigian farming methods might be a good way to restore the Lake District's upland habitats while maintaining the cultural heritage and traditions of hill farming.
Presenting this to Lake District farmers who have been rearing sheep with substantial government funding over many years was not received well. Lee earned the title of sheep-hater and it took many years to gradually bring about the required change. Acutely aware of the fact that nobody wants to hear an outsider suggesting that their way of life needs to change, Lee started talking to farmers to understand their arguments and fears, knowing that change could only happen when farmers chose to bring it about themselves.
Inspiration
On his trip to Norway, Lee learned a great deal about how to manage the depleted land in his care and how to bring it back to its former glory. He was inspired to see how a farming system with sheep could work hand in glove with a rich natural upland environment.
One thing he didn't see growing in Fidjadalen was Bracken which is a big issue in the British Isles. As Lee says: It is most problematic in the hills and is considered dominant across more than 4 per cent of the entire upland area. At its most dense, bracken casts almost complete shade, so that few other plants can grow below it. Unfortunately, sheep don't like Bracken and can easily get lost inside a large bed which is a major problem for farming, just as it is for Nature and for access.
By carefully managing sheep grazing and introducing more outdoor cattle grazing, this problem is being resolved. The regular trampling of cattle and ponies seriously weakens the Bracken, allowing young Alders to pop up along the edges of streams, and Birch and Hazel to spread out of the woodland. This also enhances water quality by helping to rough up the land thus promoting the regeneration of trees and scrub, creating a more diverse landscape which works as a better filter for water.
As a sidenote, it seems to me that the Dartmoor National Park in Devon, England, would do well to follow the footsteps of Lee's endeavours. It's desolate landscape, as beautiful as it is with its expansive views and sense of remoteness and tranquillity, is being gradually eroded by the overgrazing of sheep and the annual burning of great swathes of Bracken, a traditional practice known as swaling which destroys habitats, stops scrub and trees from growing and damages peat beds.
The overgrazing of sheep left to graze freely throughout the year is particularly problematic as they nibble away at new Heather and Bilberry shoots which start to appear in late Winter. As a result, the Heather condition is progressively weakened and what was once a species-rich heath progressively becomes species-poor grassland.
Intervention
A key part of the rewilding project at Haweswater involved a partnership between RSPB and United Utilities to improve water catchment resilience. The aim was to improve the water quality of the most important drinking water source in north-west England.
Significant river restoration and peat bog restoration achieved through grip blocking more than 40 miles of moorland drains has created natural river bends that slow down the flow of water. This not only reduces flood risk but also creates gravelly shallows, ripples and ruffles that draw oxygen into the water's flow. The resulting riffles, bars, pools and islands provide a constantly changing habitat for a massive range of wildlife.
Tree planting has also been a major part of the restoration process with more than half a million trees planted by an army of volunteers over a fifteen year period. This has also helped to prevent flooding and keep insurance premiums down which as been a popular outcome for local residents.
The Haweswater Tree Nursery has created a load of brilliant opportunities for people with different skills to give something of themselves back to Nature and to build a lasting connection to a place. Using the seeds of native trees collected locally, the nursery produces thousands of Juniper, Hazel, Rowan, Wych Elm, Holly, Oak, Hawthorn, Birch, Aspen and Willow saplings every year.
Return of the Golden Eagle
In the last chapter, Future, Lee imagines returning to Haweswater a few weeks before his retirement on a perfect late May morning. The first Spring flowers are showing and there's a good growth of grass, thanks to the months of rest that these lambing fields have had over the Winter months.
To his delight, he encounters Red Squirrels, Badgers, an Osprey, a Pine Martin, a Red-Backed Shrike, a Water Vole, a Red Kite, Black Grouse, Barn Owls and Beavers along the way. Peat bogs have a decent covering of trees with a lush carpet of Bilberry, Cowberry and Crowberry growing below. Bluethroats are drawn to the Downy Willows planted twenty-five years ago as Green Hairsteaks are busy in the Bilberry and the ubiquitous Orange Tips are making the most of the last of the Cuckooflower.
Having coaxed Nature back, helping the landscape to function again, a beautiful Golden Eagle casts a shadow on the hill. She circles and fixes an eye on me, head tilted, before flying off over the wild landscape that she rules again.
[Direct quotes are included in the above text which I am unable to put into italics as there is only a plain text option].
September 10, 2022
This book is a must read for those with a love of the Lake District National Park and an interest in nature conservation. I decided to listen to the audiobook version of Wild Fell, narrated by the author (it is always a treat when audiobooks are read by their own authors). Schofield recounts his work during his time as a site manager at the RSPB Haweswater. Admittedly, I was lured in to the book by the soaring golden eagle on the cover and by the fact the author was employed by the RSPB, which made me expect it to be heavily bird focused. In reality, Wild Fell is not that particularly bird focused and had I known that beforehand, I would have been unlikely to pick it up. Despite this, I am very glad I read this book. Schofield writes about the conservation issues affecting the Lake District, with an emphasis on sheep farming. He writes about the efforts of the RSPB and it’s partner organisations, farmers, local communities and individuals working to improve the quality of nature around the Lake District. Schofield’s passion and dedication to nature conservation shines throughout the book. Wild Fell is written in a way that is approachable and the information is easy to digest, which is a great achievement from a book that deals with some complex topics.
January 27, 2023
Some interesting bits but the pro meat farmer opinion got annoying after a while. I get it is an area more based on farming animals than arable farming but unfortunately reminded me too much of the anti-vegan and vegetarian NFU and similar organisations adverts which have rubbish like saying eat meat because impact of avacados or drink cows milk because water use in almond milk. The idea of think of the farmers whose livelihoods are based on meat gets tiresome as well because there is the unsaid part which is support meat farmers over other farmers.
December 23, 2024
Brilliant book. Easy read and very inspiring. Would thoroughly recommend.
August 3, 2022
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.
Perhaps my interest started earlier than that?
I remember secondary school geography classes where we were shown the impact of tourism on the National Park. We studied the volume of cars and the need for roads and parking, which was nothing compared to today. The pressure for accommodation, cafes, and shops. We looked at the significant impact on the Lak District hotspots, of Bowness & Windermere in particular. That was more than 35 years ago. Today the pressure of tourism is greater than ever, and in amongst it all there are communities trying to work out a livelihood within the constraints of being a National Park and a UNESCO World Heritage site.
The Lake District countryside has been shaped over thousands of years by two things farming and mining. Mining may no longer be economic; the farms, however, are still there. It may look like an idyllic way of life, but all is not well.
There’s a conflict between the desire for the National Park to be a place of natural beauty and the needs of farmers to make a living. I’m no expert on the challenges on either side, they are deep seated and long in the forming, but I would like to understand more, hence the reading pattern.
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.
Schofield talks about a desire to see wildlife, flora and fauna, return to a corner of the National Park that gets a moderate number of tourists, but is off the standard tourist routes. Situated on the eastern edges Haweswater is a man-made reservoir that supplies water to Manchester via a 96 mile long gravity-fed aqueduct. About 25% of the water for the North West of England comes from here, which makes it nationally important. In many ways Haweswater is industrial, yet it is also remote and peaceful. When I’ve walked there, I’ve always enjoyed a sense that I am somewhere where others aren’t, but I’ve not been looking with the eyes of Lee Schofield.
One the joyful parts of this book are the names of the various plant species that I so easily overlook. I can’t even remember most of the names but Schofield reels them off in a way that is glorious – Alpine Catchfly, Sessile Oak, Devil’s Bit Scabious, Goldenrod, Wood Crane’s-Bill, Lesser Meadow-Rue, Yellow Mountain Saxifrage, Globeflower, Melancholy Thistle, Common Polypody, Bog Myrtle, Bedstraw, Tormentil. The sad part is that this diversity is all too sparse in an environment where it should be abundant.
Although Schofield works for the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, this book is much more about the creation of the right environment for the flora to thrive and in so doing enable the fauna to rejuvenate, including the birds.
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.
There is a big plan for Haweswater, the area is huge and there’s lots to do – rewiggling of rivers to allow healthy meandering, blocking water drains to enable mosses to reform and bogs to come back to life, fencing in areas to reduce the impact of grazing, changing grazing patterns and species to encourage different flora, to name a few. Each one having a different impact on the ecology of the whole area.
I’ve read a few other books covering similar themes:
I’m reading… “English Pastoral: An Inheritance” by James Rebanks
I’m reading… “The Shepherd’s Life: A Tale of the Lake District” by James Rebanks
I’m reading… “Wilding” by Isabella Tree
If these book share something in common it’s not surprising Lee Schofield and James Rebanks are practically neighbours, and they’ve both been inspired by the work of Isabella Tree at Knepp.
The book concludes with the dream of a better future, a future that is thankfully looking like it might just be possible. Until a few years ago Haweswater was famous for being the only place where you could still see a Golden Eagle in England, sadly that’s no longer the case. I look forward to a day when we enable their return.
Perhaps my interest started earlier than that?
I remember secondary school geography classes where we were shown the impact of tourism on the National Park. We studied the volume of cars and the need for roads and parking, which was nothing compared to today. The pressure for accommodation, cafes, and shops. We looked at the significant impact on the Lak District hotspots, of Bowness & Windermere in particular. That was more than 35 years ago. Today the pressure of tourism is greater than ever, and in amongst it all there are communities trying to work out a livelihood within the constraints of being a National Park and a UNESCO World Heritage site.
The Lake District countryside has been shaped over thousands of years by two things farming and mining. Mining may no longer be economic; the farms, however, are still there. It may look like an idyllic way of life, but all is not well.
There’s a conflict between the desire for the National Park to be a place of natural beauty and the needs of farmers to make a living. I’m no expert on the challenges on either side, they are deep seated and long in the forming, but I would like to understand more, hence the reading pattern.
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.
Schofield talks about a desire to see wildlife, flora and fauna, return to a corner of the National Park that gets a moderate number of tourists, but is off the standard tourist routes. Situated on the eastern edges Haweswater is a man-made reservoir that supplies water to Manchester via a 96 mile long gravity-fed aqueduct. About 25% of the water for the North West of England comes from here, which makes it nationally important. In many ways Haweswater is industrial, yet it is also remote and peaceful. When I’ve walked there, I’ve always enjoyed a sense that I am somewhere where others aren’t, but I’ve not been looking with the eyes of Lee Schofield.
One the joyful parts of this book are the names of the various plant species that I so easily overlook. I can’t even remember most of the names but Schofield reels them off in a way that is glorious – Alpine Catchfly, Sessile Oak, Devil’s Bit Scabious, Goldenrod, Wood Crane’s-Bill, Lesser Meadow-Rue, Yellow Mountain Saxifrage, Globeflower, Melancholy Thistle, Common Polypody, Bog Myrtle, Bedstraw, Tormentil. The sad part is that this diversity is all too sparse in an environment where it should be abundant.
Although Schofield works for the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, this book is much more about the creation of the right environment for the flora to thrive and in so doing enable the fauna to rejuvenate, including the birds.
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.
There is a big plan for Haweswater, the area is huge and there’s lots to do – rewiggling of rivers to allow healthy meandering, blocking water drains to enable mosses to reform and bogs to come back to life, fencing in areas to reduce the impact of grazing, changing grazing patterns and species to encourage different flora, to name a few. Each one having a different impact on the ecology of the whole area.
I’ve read a few other books covering similar themes:
I’m reading… “English Pastoral: An Inheritance” by James Rebanks
I’m reading… “The Shepherd’s Life: A Tale of the Lake District” by James Rebanks
I’m reading… “Wilding” by Isabella Tree
If these book share something in common it’s not surprising Lee Schofield and James Rebanks are practically neighbours, and they’ve both been inspired by the work of Isabella Tree at Knepp.
The book concludes with the dream of a better future, a future that is thankfully looking like it might just be possible. Until a few years ago Haweswater was famous for being the only place where you could still see a Golden Eagle in England, sadly that’s no longer the case. I look forward to a day when we enable their return.
May 23, 2022
The book was right up my street. I love the Lake District dearly and am an avid fell walker, but in recent years have become concerned by snippets of information about how badly nature fares in this sheep-farming landscape. Yet I've never felt properly informed about the situation until I read Wild Fell. I felt my eyes were finally opened both to the huge scale of the problem and to the possible (if supremely challenging) solutions.
Of course, Schofield isn't an unbiased observer. He naturally has a personal and professional leaning towards nature over farming. However, I found his research very persuasive. He looks back at the history of sheep farming in Cumbria and the UK more generally and identifies that it used to be much lower-impact until modern methods and government subsidies caused it to explode. The result was the fells being stripped bare of all vegetation barring coarse grasses, and a few botanical rarities clinging on in crags that the sheep can't reach.
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.
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.
But if we can't restore nature in our national parks, what other hope do we have? Biosphere level conservation and restoration is critical to preventing environmental collapse globally. And Schofield rightly takes a whole-landscape approach to his conservation plans, starting with figuring out how to wildflower meadows and heaths back to health. Sometimes his interest in plants became a bit too in depth for me. Lists of montane flowers, while evocative sounding, don't mean a lot when you don't what they look like, although in fairness he does include the odd sketch. But I get it - plants support the rest of the food chain so it's the right place to focus.
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.
Fortunately there are reasons for optimism. The scale of global climate change and ecosystem destruction makes me sceptical of the true impact of local initiatives but Schofield convinced me that an important difference can still be made. By removing river straightening, reverting to traditional low impact grazing, sensitive tree and wildflower planting and other initiatives, a sizeable part of the landscape can be returned in large part to nature. Better still, many charities landowners and even farmers are making similar steps. I'm left feeling inspired to keep myself informed about Haweswater's transformation over the coming years.
Of course, Schofield isn't an unbiased observer. He naturally has a personal and professional leaning towards nature over farming. However, I found his research very persuasive. He looks back at the history of sheep farming in Cumbria and the UK more generally and identifies that it used to be much lower-impact until modern methods and government subsidies caused it to explode. The result was the fells being stripped bare of all vegetation barring coarse grasses, and a few botanical rarities clinging on in crags that the sheep can't reach.
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.
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.
But if we can't restore nature in our national parks, what other hope do we have? Biosphere level conservation and restoration is critical to preventing environmental collapse globally. And Schofield rightly takes a whole-landscape approach to his conservation plans, starting with figuring out how to wildflower meadows and heaths back to health. Sometimes his interest in plants became a bit too in depth for me. Lists of montane flowers, while evocative sounding, don't mean a lot when you don't what they look like, although in fairness he does include the odd sketch. But I get it - plants support the rest of the food chain so it's the right place to focus.
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.
Fortunately there are reasons for optimism. The scale of global climate change and ecosystem destruction makes me sceptical of the true impact of local initiatives but Schofield convinced me that an important difference can still be made. By removing river straightening, reverting to traditional low impact grazing, sensitive tree and wildflower planting and other initiatives, a sizeable part of the landscape can be returned in large part to nature. Better still, many charities landowners and even farmers are making similar steps. I'm left feeling inspired to keep myself informed about Haweswater's transformation over the coming years.
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