Change of command for Navy Region Hawaii

Rear Adm. John Fuller will relinquish command of Navy Region Hawaii and Naval Surface Group Middle Pacific at 1 p.m. Friday to Rear Adm. Brian Fort.

Fuller took command in Hawaii in June 2015. The Defense Department said in January that Fuller was being assigned as commander of Carrier Strike Group 1 in San Diego.

Fort most recently was assistant chief of staff for Naval Surface Force, Atlantic Fleet, in Norfolk, Va.

Satellite may flash brightly Tuesday night

A communications satellite will create an extremely bright if brief flash over Honolulu on Tuesday evening if the weather is clear. At 7:24 p.m., the Iridium 40 satellite will reflect sunlight from its giant mirrorlike antennas. This will look like a cosmic explosion but will fade within seconds.

This will happen almost straight up, between Jupiter and the star Arcturus, also known as Hokule‘a. The flare will be many times brighter than Jupiter.

Hawaii island

Committee mapping rapid ohia death fungal disease

HILO >> A field crew is working to track the rapid ohia death fungal disease that has killed thousands of trees in Hawaii.

The team from the Big Island Invasive Species Committee visited the Hilo Forest Reserve on Wednesday to see an area that is considered a high priority in the team’s mapping efforts, the Hawaii Tribune-­Herald reported. Mapping is the first step toward understanding and eliminating rapid ohia death, the team said.

The disease has stretched over about 75,000 acres of endemic ohia trees, according to the report. The disease has killed more than 200,000 ohia trees in the past two years, researchers said.

Once infected, the fungus spreads through the trees’ vascular systems and cuts off access to nutrients and water. Symptoms can take months to manifest, and they can kill trees in a matter of weeks once they do, researchers said.

The crew began its efforts in January. Before that, it focused primarily on efforts to eliminate invasive albizia trees. Now the team devotes about 75 percent of its time to the fungal disease.

“For me, it feels really good that we’re doing rapid ohia death things now,” said field technician Jensen Walker, who was born and raised on the Big Island. The ohia is “so important in Hawaiian culture.”

The samples taken on Wednesday all tested negative for the fungus via the crew’s remote lab. The results will be confirmed in a month.

The crew will need to return to the site again to be sure, project leader Bill Buckley said.

“You can miss it, if it (the infection site) is higher up in the canopy and hasn’t (traveled) down yet,” said J.B. Friday, an extension forester with the University of Hawaii. “If it were just a small infection, maybe it would take a lot longer. Maybe it would take a year or two to infect the whole tree.”

Maintenance on some wells limits water for North Kona

Mandatory water restrictions remain in effect for North Kona as wells in the district undergo repairs.

Customers are asked to reduce water usage by 25 percent. That means no watering lawns, no washing cars and boats, and no running the washer and dishwater with less than a full load.

Farmers are asked to irrigate only between 8 p.m. and 6 a.m. to reduce water loss due to evaporation.