Sam Gon

Samuel M. 'Ohukani'ōhi'a Gon III is an American scientist and cultural advisor for The Nature Conservancy of Hawaiʻi. He was born and raised in Nuʻuanu on the island of Oahu. Gon studied Hawaiian culture under Kumu John Keolamala'āinana Lake. Gon worked to integrate Hawaiian culture, values, and knowledge into conservation efforts. Gon sat on the Office of Hawaiian Affairs panel, the Hawaii Land Board (2006-2014).

Gon graduated from McKinley High School and earned a Bachelor's in Zoology at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. He continued his education at the University of California at Davis earning his Master's in Zoology and PhD in animal behavior, studying the Happy-face Spider, Theridion grallator.

Gon joined The Nature Conservancy of Hawaii in the 1990s. As the Hawai'i Conservancy's director of science, he orchestrated research that supported its initiatives to preserve Hawaii's biodiversity. Gon managed biological inventories for the Conservancy and the state of Hawaii.

He worked as the supervisor for the Hawai'i Natural Heritage Program from 1992 to 1994. Gon directed a team working to protect the environment across all Hawaiian Islands by developing conservation and management strategies. Gon directed ecological analysis and data management systems for projects in East Asia, Latin America, Polynesia, and Micronesia. In 1991, Sam sailed on Hōkūleʻa around the Hawaiian Islands. He served on the board of the Ōhi'a Project, focused on Hawaiʻi's endemic and most abundant native tree. He was an executive committee member of the Hawaiian Conservation Alliance. Gon was a board member for Ahahui Malama i ka Lokahi which aids in conserving native plants and animals in Hawaii and for the Kaho'olawe Island Reserve Commission with a focus on habitat restoration. In 2015, while Gon was a part of the Board of Land and Natural Resources, he was an advocate for the protection of the native fish, O'opu (Awaous stamineus) at risk of extinction. He was named a Living Treasure of Hawaii by the Honpa Hongwanji Mission of Hawaii for his contributions towards preserving Hawaiian culture and Hawaiian ecology.

Gon served on the Board for more than three terms between 2006 and 2021. In 2021, Governor David Ige withdrew his nomination of Gon to continue in that capacity.

Gon has given numerous presentations about Hawaiian ecosystems and culture to global audiences, such as the Dalem Ethnological Museum in Berlin, Germany(2011), the American Museum of Natural History in New York (2012), and the Museum of World Culture in Paris, France (2014)

In 2014 Gon gave a TedTalk in Maui on how combining science and cultural practices can be beneficial. Gon and colleagues contributed to a collaborative effort calculating the ecological footprint of pre-contact Hawaii.

Gon published articles on altitudinal effects on the general diversity of endemic insect communities in Leeward Hawaiian forests (1978),invertebrate domestication (1984), water bears (1986), native and endemic plants (1987; 2008), sex-biased pattern variations in birds of prey (2003), applications of traditional Hawaiian knowledge (2008), using human ecological footprints to inform bicultural restoration and sustainability (2018), the Hawaiian Renaissance (2019), optimizing ecosystem services (2020), and a conservation roadmap for subterranean biomes (2021), and on the methodology for exploring indigenous conceptualizations of nature and conservation (2022).

He is also the creator of Trilobites.info A guide to the Orders of Trilobites

Publications

• Gon, Samuel M.; Price, Edward O. (October 1984). "Invertebrate Domestication: Behavioral Considerations". BioScience. 34 (9): 575–579. doi:10.2307/1309600. JSTOR 1309600. Archived from the original on April 30, 2023. Retrieved June 8, 2023.
• Gon, S. M. Iii; Kimsey, R. A.; Schuster, R. O.; Willis, M. A. (June 1986). "A prodromus of the water bear fauna of Haleakala National Park". hdl:10125/18495. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
• Nagata, Kenneth M.; Gon, S. (1987). "Sanicula mariversa (Apiaceae), a New Species from 'Ohikilolo Ridge, Wai'anae Mountains, O'ahu in the Hawaiian Archipelago". Systematic Botany. 12 (3): 406–409. doi:10.2307/2419265. JSTOR 2419265. S2CID 87795637.
• Baird, Amy B.; Braun, Janet K.; Mares, Michael A.; Morales, Juan Carlos; Patton, John C.; Tran, Christina Q.; Bickham, John W. (2015). "Molecular systematic revision of tree bats (Lasiurini): doubling the native mammals of the Hawaiian Islands". Journal of Mammalogy. 96 (6): 1255–1274. doi:10.1093/jmammal/gyv135. ISSN 0022-2372. JSTOR 26373001.
• "A Pictorical Guide to the Orders of Trilobites - Anna's Archive". annas-archive.org. Retrieved April 26, 2023.
• Iii, Samuel M. Gon (2003). "Application of Traditional Ecological Knowledge and Practices of Indigenous Hawaiians to Re-vegetation of Kaho'olawe". Ethnobotany Research and Applications. 1: 005–020. ISSN 1547-3465.
• Lin, Jih-Pai; Gon, S.; Gehling, J.; Babcock, L.; Zhao, Yuan-long; Zhang, Xingliang; Hu, Shi-xue; Yuan, Jinliang; Yu, M.; Peng, Jin (2006). "A Parvancorina-like arthropod from the Cambrian of South China". Historical Biology. 18 (1): 33–45. Bibcode:2006HBio...18...33L. doi:10.1080/08912960500508689. S2CID 85821717.
• "Mapping Plant Species Ranges in the Hawaiian Islands; Developing a Methodology and Associated GIS Layers". pubs.usgs.gov. Retrieved April 26, 2023.
• Ladefoged, Thegn N.; Kirch, Patrick V.; Gon, Samuel M.; Chadwick, Oliver A.; Hartshorn, Anthony S.; Vitousek, Peter M. (2009). "Opportunities and constraints for intensive agriculture in the Hawaiian archipelago prior to European contact". Journal of Archaeological Science. 10 (36): 2374–2383. Bibcode:2009JArSc..36.2374L. doi:10.1016/j.jas.2009.06.030. ISSN 0305-4403.
• Fortini, Lucas; Price, Jonathan; Jacobi, James; Vorsino, Adam; Burgett, Jeff; Brinck, Kevin; Amidon, Fred; Miller, Steve; Gon III, Sam; Koob, Gregory; Paxton, Eben (January 25, 2016). "A landscape-based assessment of climate change vulnerability for all native plants". hdl:10790/2620. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
• Winter, Kawika; Lincoln, Noa; Berkes, Fikret; Alegado, Rosanna; Kurashima, Natalie; Frank, Kiana; Pascua, Puaʻala; Rii, Yoshimi; Reppun, Frederick; Knapp, Ingrid; McClatchey, Will; Ticktin, Tamara; Smith, Celia; Franklin, Erik; Oleson, Kirsten (June 27, 2020). "Ecomimicry in Indigenous resource management: optimizing ecosystem services to achieve resource abundance, with examples from Hawaiʻi". Ecology and Society. 25 (2). doi:10.5751/ES-11539-250226. ISSN 1708-3087. S2CID 220126676.