Field Notes

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.

Shane Bradt is an extension professor at the University of New Hampshire and a member of the team responsible for creating the bloomWatch app. The app allows community members to report cases of cyanobacteria, a form of algae that’s harmful to human health, in their local lakes. In this episode of Field Notes, we talk with Shane about the importance of monitoring cyanobacteria, considerations for designing the app, and where his team will take it next.
For more information about Shane’s UC presentation, check out the Crowdsourcing Cyanobacteria with bloomWatch presentation slides.

Atlanta, Georgia is often called the city of trees, however increased development over the past several years has threatened the natural landscape the city is known for. Trees Atlanta is one organization working to restore the city's tree population by raising awareness and developing a variety of initiatives to plant trees across the city. One of these initiatives is the Front Yard Tree Program, which allows Atlanta residents to request that trees be planted right outside of their home. In this episode, we talk with Angela McTigue and James Moy, members of Trees Atlanta who use surveys and mobile maps to drive their conservation efforts.

Amber Kuehn is the director of the Sea Turtle Patrol on Hilton Head Island. During nesting season, her and her team of volunteers wake up before the sun to look for one thing: sea turtle nests. On this episode of Field Notes, learn how ArcGIS Field Maps and EOS receivers are used to map sea turtle nests, listen to first-hand accounts of sea turtle encounters, and understand the importance of protecting this endangered species.

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 how field apps are used across a variety of environmental efforts.

Another year flies by and with it another season of the Field Notes podcast.  On this short, final episode, Josh and D’Maia reflect on the past year of podcasting about Esri Field Apps and mobile GIS.
We hope you have a happy holiday season and a fantastic new year! We have so many exciting things in store for season three of Field Notes, and can’t wait to see you then. In the meantime, be sure to fill out the feedback survey so we create the content you want to listen to.