Technology in the wild

Invasive species threaten our ecosystems and economy…and reproduce rapidly! That's why the CFIA is bringing digital tools into the wild to track them.

Technology in the wild – Transcript

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Technology in the wild
Protecting Canadian forests

Narrator: Invasive species have a bad reputation, and for good reason. They threaten our ecosystems, trade and economy…and grow and reproduce rapidly.

That's why the Canadian Food Inspection Agency is using innovative tools such as Workforce and Survey123 to help track invasive species and plant pests.

Melissa Cook, CFIA Plant Programs Specialist Inspector, Burnaby, British Columbia: Hi, my name is Melissa Cook, and I'm a Plant Programs Specialist Inspector in the Burnaby, British Columbia Plant Health Office.

Currently, I'm working in the Plant Health Surveillance Unit developing the Survey123 learning material for use by CFIA staff.

Narrator: Survey123 is just one of the new digital tools that CFIA experts use to survey and collect information about invasive species that aren't wanted in our environment.

Workforce links directly with Survey123 for data collection and navigational tools to provide directions for the inspectors to take them right to the survey site to see these pests.

These pests aren't native to Canada. They often arrive in or on shipments of imported products, and can cause huge damage to many types of trees, plants and environments.

These inspectors are on their way to Hume Park in Metro Vancouver, where they'll use digital tools like the Survey123 app to carry out surveillance activities for invasive forest pests.

Digital tools have also improved the accuracy and reliability of the data collected, which lets inspectors respond more quickly and effectively.

Melissa Cook: This has completely revolutionized how I do my work. And the best part is that the field inspectors, they are able to quickly and easily capture the information during trap setup and find those traps quickly in the field.

Narrator: Tools like Survey123, Workforce and more will continue to support inspectors like Melissa Cook in keeping an eye out for invasive species.

[End of recording]

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