Richard Beggs

Research and Extension Officer (Murray-Riverina)

Richard Beggs originally studied Agriculture at Aberdeen University, before undertaking a Masters in Environmental Management at UWA and a PhD at the Fenner School of Environment and Society at The Australian National University.

Richard’s PhD research looked at ways to reduce the numbers and impact of noisy miners in box-gum grassy woodlands. Some of the key findings of his research inform Sustainable Farms advice on management of woodland remnants – particularly the importance of enhancing the understory of degraded woodlands.

Richard joins the Sustainable Farms team in 2021 as a Research and Extension officer, with a focus on the Murray-Riverina region. In this role, he will focus on supporting farmers with their management decisions by sharing research from the Sustainable Farms project. Having recently undertaken a PhD in the box-gum grassy woodlands, Richard is already familiar with many of the Sustainable Farms research sites.

Richard recognises the complexity of the problems now facing society, and is particularly interested in the causes for the divergence between what we know we need to do and what is actually being done. Those causes operate in multiple social, political, economic and personal planes and are so complex that at times the situation appears hopeless; in which case, as Pablo Casals put it, ‘we must take the next step’. Richard sees the Sustainable Farms project as being all about taking that next step.