Betsy Harrison Gagne

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  www.naturalarea.org/programs.aspx?p=Hawaii - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 10/13/2008    Last Visited: 1/9/2008  

  Betsy Gagne NARS Commission Executive Secretary Tele: (808) 587-0063

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  Army Finally Seeks Permit to Work - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 4/10/2005    Last Visited: 4/8/2006  

  With the Army's environ­mental program staff there's no problem, says NARS executive secretary Betsy Gagné, "but the decisions have gone up and down the chain of command and those people change."
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  Gagné told the commission that she had tried repeatedly to get the Army to apply for a special use permit without success.

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  Chicago Tribune | Biologists work to bring rare... - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 2/25/2002    Last Visited: 2/25/2002  

  "There's nothing like it anywhere," said Betsy Gagne, who was the first to spot the "mystery bird" as a college student and today is executive secretary of the Natural Area Reserves System Commission.
  
  Reserve protects ecosystem
  
  Hawaii accounts for less than 0.2 percent of the land mass of the United States, but it holds a quarter of the nation's threatened and endangered species.
  
  The 7,500-acre Hanawi rain forest was set aside as a reserve in 1986 in hopes of protecting the entire ecosystem--not just the birds but also the plants, insects and organisms interwoven in its network of life.In the last decade, the state has overseen aggressive efforts to remove alien threats, including the wild pigs that tear up the forest under story, tree-climbing rats that eat eggs and birds, and plants that crowd out native species.
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  "We may not be able to save the po`ouli, but we're going to give it our best shot," Gagne said."In any case, we'll learn from the work we do, and other species will benefit."
  
  Copyright © 2002, Chicago Tribune

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  Enforcement at Ahihi-Kina'u Hinges On Community Input,... - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 2/8/2004    Last Visited: 5/11/2004  

  According to NARS executive secretary Betsy Gagne, Hau felt the subcommittee should discuss possible effects of the expansion of the permit into other areas of the reserve.

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  Fate of Rare Species Hinges on Pair of Lovebirds - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 2/10/2002    Last Visited: 2/10/2002  

  "There's nothing like it anywhere," said Betsy H. Gagne, who was the first to spot the "mystery bird" as a college student and today is executive secretary of the Natural Area Reserves System Commission."Are we going to just let these birds go quietly into the night, when we ourselves are the ones who've pushed them along?"
  
  Much of Hawaii's native forest has succumbed over the years to clearing for ranching, agriculture and urban development.The wild areas that are left remain vulnerable because Hawaiian plants and animals evolved in isolation and never developed natural defenses against foreign predators and disease.Hawaii accounts for less than 0.2% of the land mass of the United States, but it holds a quarter of the nation's threatened and endangered species.
  
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  "We may not be able to save the po'ouli, but we're going to give it our best shot," Gagne said."In any case, we'll learn from the work we do, and other species will benefit." If you want other stories on this topic, search the Archives at latimes.com/archives.For information about reprinting this article, go to http://www.lats.com/rights/.

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  KAHEA > NARS Contacts - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 5/26/2008    Last Visited: 5/26/2008  

  Betsy Harrison Gagne, Public Education Specialist1151 Punchbowl Street, Suite 325Honolulu, Hawai'i 96813(808) 587-0054Betsy H Gagne@exec.state.hi.us

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  Land Board Levies $18,500 Fine For 'Massacre' of Hala... - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 7/1/2004    Last Visited: 3/8/2006  

  An April 2004 memo from Betsy Gagne of the DLNR's Natural Area Reserves System to OCCL's Dawn Hegger explains, "each time a section of hala is cut from the coastal areas ... it drives a wedge into the existing forest, opening it to invasion by alien species that will eventually alter and completely destroy this unique vegetative community.

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  Land Board Levies $18,500 Fine For 'Massacre' of Hala... - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 7/1/2004    Last Visited: 8/28/2004  

  An April 2004 memo from Betsy Gagne of the DLNR's Natural Area Reserves System to OCCL's Dawn Hegger explains, "each time a section of hala is cut from the coastal areas...it drives a wedge into the existing forest, opening it to invasion by alien species that will eventually alter and completely destroy this unique vegetative community.

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  Managers View As Mixed Blessing Proposed New Natural... - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 3/1/2001    Last Visited: 3/2/2004  

  Betsy Gagné, executive secretary to the NARS Commission, says the system needs three or four times the financial resources it now has."Everybody is tired of running in place," she says.
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  To Gagné and others, the hunters' concerns about losing prime hunting grounds are bogus.Altogether, DOFAW has responsibility for 800,000 acres, with roughly one acre in eight falling within the Natural Area Reserve System, she notes.More than half a million acres of DOFAW lands are available for hunting, she adds.Even if the reserve system acreage doubled, it wouldn't come close to what hunters already have, she says.
  
  "People are used to going where they want to go," she says."People don't see the big picture."Referring to the important function natural areas play in recharging aquifers, she adds, "People don't know where their water comes from."
  
  In a NAR on the Big Island, she says, a large amount of fresh lava was included.
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  Upon hearing the hunters' arguments, Gagné clamps her hands to her face and shakes her head.She's heard every theory in the book offered by hunters on the virtues of ungulates.
  
  One question they ask all the time, she says, is, "`If ungulates are so bad for endangered species, why do they seem to occupy the same area?' Endangered species may exist where there are many ungulates, but they are declining.
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  Drawing lines on maps where game management will and will not occur is the biggest obstacle to solving the management problem, Gagné says, adding that in the NARS, "we don't have the leadership or the spine" to do what needs to be done.
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  The only way it's going to fly is if [conservationists] give up areas where there are few endangered species to game management, so that the rest can be better protected," Gagné says.
  
  This may prove difficult since she says the "plant people" are just as bad with disagreeing with each other as the conservationists are with the hunters."At least the hunters agree with each other," Gagné says.

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  Natural Area Commission Votes to Keep Pu`u Maka`ala... - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 7/1/2000    Last Visited: 3/2/2004  

  Betsy Gagne, NARS executive secretary, provided the commission with data from a Department of Transportation study of the area, done as part of a road-widening project.The study found that the area was home to many native insects, including candidates for endangered species.Seventy-five to 80 percent of the insects found were native, she said.
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  In addition, NARS executive secretary Betsy Gagne reported to the commission that DLNR staffers on Maui had told her that the candidate areas on that island were already sufficiently protected by virtue of their having been placed in the protective subzone of the state Conservation District.
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  And, according to Gagne, this means that judges will throw out cases brought by the Division of Conservation and Resource Enforcement, the DLNR's enforcement branch.
  
  Problem three, according to Gagne: DOCARE is under funded and does not have the staff or resources to enforce the laws.
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  Gagne agreed to collect data on DOCARE arrests so the commission could better discuss solutions.

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