Field Notes EsriFieldNotes

California produces half of the nation's fruits and vegetables, so agricultural protection is a key pillar for the Napa County Agricultural Commissioner's office. In this episode, we sit down with Anna Norton and Andre Napolitano, two Deputy Commissioners for Napa County, to learn how they use GIS to manage pests that threaten the country's produce. Listen to the episode as they share their story and top tips for improving your own GIS workflows.

Welcome to the Field Notes podcast, where we engage with customers and Esri staff to understand mobile GIS, share stories from the field, and explore all things Field Operations. On this season, we’re focusing on designing better field workflows—so get ready for exciting stories and top tips to help improve your own work.

The Fieldwork Handbook is a new book from Esri Press that includes tips, best practices, and activities for creating successful and productive field workflows. The author, Marika Vertzonis, is a long-time friend (and former guest) of the Field Notes podcast. In our latest field snack episode, we sit down with Marika once again to talk all about this new book which releases on March 5th, 2024.
Additional resources
The Fieldwork Handbook Esri Press page
Marika's blog post: Introducing the Fieldwork Handbook
Our first episode with Marika: Census, cola, and crocodiles, oh my!

Aryn Musgrave does just about everything related to GIS for the Desert Botanical Garden located in Phoenix, AZ. Maintaining land that contains over 4000 plant species is no small feat, especially since the garden doubles as a museum for researchers across the country.
With ArcGIS paired with high-accuracy data collection, Aryn and her team maintain a variety of maps that include horticulture, irrigation, and other critical information related to the garden’s operations. Highlights of this episode include the following:
Creating horticulture maps
Protecting data integrity during fieldwork
Navigating remote field sites

In this episode of Field Notes, we chat with Andrea Pecharich and Andrew Bartshire, who work with the Russian River Salmon and Steelhead Monitoring program. The data they collect with Esri Field Apps helps conservationists monitor fish populations, analyze patterns, and ultimately recover California's endangered fish species. Highlights from this episode include:
Combatting climate change by monitoring salmon and steelhead populations
Using Field Maps and Survey123 in tandem to collect data
Creating adaptive database structures
Working in offline environments

African People & Wildlife is an organization dedicated to creating a world where Africa’s people and wildlife coexist and thrive in vibrant, healthy landscapes. In this episode, we sit down with two folks who help achieve this vision in Tanzania. Elizabeth Naro and Ramadhani Omary use GIS in all aspects of their work—from managing business operations to monitoring rangelands and resources with local communities in the field. In this episode, learn how GIS helps them accomplish their goals.