[5] For his MSc dissertation[5] and for a subsequent academic publication,[6] he investigated social attitudes to large mammal reintroductions in the Scottish Highlands, a subject he would later return to in his writing.
[7] Schofield began working as site manager for the RSPB at Haweswater shortly after the charity took over the tenancies of Naddle and Swindale Farms in 2012.
[10] Major programmes of woodland, bog, hay meadow and river restoration[11][12] have been delivered and a sustainable grazing regime with native breed cattle and ponies and a small number of sheep has replaced the previous more intensive sheep-grazing model,[8] resulting in increases in a wide range of species, including Atlantic salmon,[13] tree pipit,[14] red grouse, marsh fritillary butterfly,[15] water vole[16] and many specialist upland plants.
Haweswater is increasingly recognised as one of the UK's most ambitious and pioneering nature recovery projects[4] and has received multiple awards and accolades.
[3][20] Wild Fell won the Richard Jefferies Award in 2022,[21] and was Highly Commended in the James Cropper Wainwright Prize for Writing on Conservation in the same year.