Wild Fell is a vivid and detailed
account of Lee Schofield’s work as the RSPB’s Site Manager at Haweswater in the Lake District, where the nature conservation charity works in
partnership with the landowner United Utilities. Their aim is to discover ‘how
to rebalance farming and nature’ and ‘to develop a way to look after our land
that occupies the middle ground between hill farming and conservation,
restoring nature, respecting traditions, producing food, and supporting the
local economy’. This might sound like an almost impossible agenda, and
Schofield does not duck the challenges he has faced in mediating between the
interests of a variety of key stakeholders in a highly sensitive landscape.
Although Wild Fell engages fully with the political, social, economic,
cultural and financial contexts that affect Haweswater, it is above all an
optimistic and uplifting record of projects that are advancing conservation,
producing positive changes and enriching the biodiversity of the environment.
These initiatives include altering land usage, especially by scaling back the
number of sheep, extensive new planting of trees and wildflowers, restoring a
river to its natural course, soil improvement, and developing eco-tourism to
benefit the local economy. Success depends on having plans that interact and
reinforce each other, and which accommodate both compromises and co-operation
with the local community, and the book is a convincing illustration of what can
be achieved when a conservation organisation works with a water company and the
local community to effect change.
Professor
Barry Sloan, Chair of the panel of judges, said:
“Much of the appeal of Wild
Fell stems from the fluency with which Lee Schofield conveys the intimate
knowledge and deep feeling he has developed for the Haweswater landscape, his
own personal commitment to enriching and developing it, and the unabashed
delight he takes from each sign of progressive change. It is a highly personal
story as well as a thoroughly documented account of a complex and ongoing
conservation project, a combination which should earn it the wide readership it
deserves.”
Lee
Schofield said:
“As a first-time author, and as someone who never imagined I’d have a
book published, winning the Richard Jefferies Award is genuinely beyond my
wildest dreams. There really would be no story to tell at Haweswater if it
weren’t for my wonderful RSPB colleagues past and present, and the inspiration
and energy I’ve gained from the Lake District’s growing band of
conservationists and nature-friendly farmers. This award is really for all of
them.”
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:
Where the Wild Flowers Grow – Leif Bersweden (Hodder
& Stoughton)
Wild Fell – Lee Schofield (Doubleday)
The Treeline – Ben Rawlence (Jonathan Cape)
The Lost Rainforests of Britain – Guy Shrubsole (William
Collins)
Fen, Bog, and Swamp – Annie Proulx (Fourth
Estate)
Illuminated by Water – Malachy Tallack
(Doubleday)
Previous
winners of the award of £1,000 are: Gods
of the Morning by John Lister-Kaye (2015), The Wood for the Trees by Richard Fortey (2016), The Seabird’s Cry by Adam Nicolson
(2017), Wilding by Isabella Tree
(2018), Rebirding by Benedict
Macdonald (2019), Orchard by Benedict
Macdonald and Nicholas Gates (2020) and On
Gallows Down by Nicola Chester (2021).
