Welcome to the 87^th North American Wildlife and Natural Resources Conference. It is so nice to be able to see each other in person and not over a computer screen. I am sure that you, like me, missed reconnecting with your friends and colleagues during the last two years. We are happy that we can provide that opportunity, and also serve those who may not be able to make the conference by providing a virtual component. My sincere thanks to Matt Dunfee, the conference organizer, as well as Cindy Delaney and her talented team for assisting us in this conference. I also thank all the state agency, federal agency, tribal members, non-governmental organizations, businesses, industries, and exhibitors for your participation and financial support to make this 87^th conference successful.

The Ohio Division of Wildlife (ODOW) recently completed a plan to increase conservation relevance to more Ohioans. The plan focuses on improving ODOW’s engagement with, and service to, African Americans and young adults. The Relevancy Consulting Team formed to develop the ODOW plan is currently working with the Missouri Department of Conservation to apply a similar approach to their relevancy planning. The team will soon begin working with Connecticut, Oklahoma, Nevada, and a yet-to-be selected southeastern state under a 2022 Multi-State Conservation Grant to advance those state’s efforts to implement the Fish and Wildlife Relevancy Roadmap.

The United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) announced the expansion of wild bird surveillance for avian influenza to include the Mississippi and Central Flyways. This expansion also enlarged the existing surveillance program in the Atlantic and Pacific Flyways, which is in place to conduct surveillance of birds that may interact with wild birds from Europe and Asia. APHIS confirmed highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) in wild birds in several states in the Atlantic Flyway in January as well as in a commercial turkey flock in Indiana on February 8, and the additional surveillance will increase the agency’s capability to track the disease throughout the United States.

Fiscal year 2021 (FY2021) has been an exciting year at the CRU program, as documented in our brand-new “Year in Review” report. The companion file 2020 Research Abstracts includes most of the ongoing or recently completed research. I wanted to use this month’s CRU Corner story to provide a broad overview of the exceptional work being done across the country.