January is always a time of reflection and setting new goals and intentions. In the college, it is an opportunity to think about the work we’ve done, the lessons we’ve learned and how we want to move forward in the new year. When I think back on the past two years, I am in awe and inspired at how much we’ve adapted and accomplished in this era of uncertainty and change. Our advisors continue to meet with students and provide critical support to students, faculty and students have learned how to pivot and remain flexible with teaching and research, and staff have adopted new ways to manage workloads, support our communities and continue to keep our facilities functioning.

These days, we are celebrating both the small and big wins.

Supporting a healthy and safe learning and work environment is our top priority. At the first of the year, we quickly pivoted to meet the public health needs of our community to quell the latest COVID-19 surge by delaying in-person instruction. We are already seeing a decline in positive cases and look forward resuming classes and sports next month.

As you will read in Highlights, several of our faculty and staff have received awards and recognition, and we are actively conducting research. Our faculty have been awarded several large grants over the past year including funding for studying diet and food biomarkers, using artificial intelligence to create new breeding tools, and a new innovation lab to support small-scale farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa to become more climate resilient.

This past weekend the birds were active at the UC Davis Putah Creek Riparian Reserve. There were several common mergansers sunning themselves in the creek, the western bluebirds were prolific and looked brilliant as they hovered above the green pastures, downy woodpeckers fed on insects in oak trees, and a yellow-billed magpie called out lots of opinions while the red-shouldered hawks sat like sentries in the trees. Whether your passion is birding, fly fishing, biking or simply walking through your neighborhood, now is a great time to set an intention to enjoy our natural spaces and remember our connection to the land, as individuals and through the work we do on behalf of the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.