FAIRLEA, W.Va. (WVVA) -In Greenbrier County there was a major announcement today relating to one of the county’s schools.

At a press conference Monday morning, the Greenbrier East Spartan Band announced that they were officially invited to the Pearl Harbor Remembrance Parade in December next year in Hawaii.

The band director, principal, and band boosters were on hand to make the announcement and kick off a fundraising push to help make the trip possible.

The effort got a kick start to their two hundred fifty-thousand-dollar goal from an anonymous donor.

Greenbrier East’s Band will be the official representative for the state of West Virginia and the Battleship West Virginia in that parade.

Band Director Jim Allder tells us this is a big honor and to make it happen, It’s going to take a lot of financial backing from everyone in the state, not just Greenbrier County.

It’s a huge honor for our band to be asked to this. We did do this once before in 2001 for the 70th anniversary and to be asked back is a big honor. Right now, our goal is two hundred fifty thousand dollars. It sounds like a lot of money but when you consider the life experience these kids are going to get otherwise wouldn’t have the opportunity, I think it’s well worth it.

If you would like to donate to the band for their trip you can find more information on the greenbrier east band’s Facebook page.

They have several options with QR codes to make it easier to donate.

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The forest disturbance that foraging feral pigs cause on Hawaii’s Big Island may be helping nonnative plants take root.

“Areas that have higher pig density and soil disturbance tend to have a greater abundance of nonnative species,” said Michael Peyton, a PhD candidate at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Native Hawaiians first introduced pigs to Hawaii when they colonized the archipelago from Polynesia between the years of 400 and 1100. Explorer James Cook and subsequent visitors introduced European pigs starting in the 18^th century. The hybridized descendants of these breeds uproot native plants and damage infrastructure.

In a study published recently in Functional Ecology, Peyton and his colleagues wanted to see how different densities of feral pigs (Sus scrofa) affected the disturbance of native plants on the Big Island of Hawaii.

They set up trail cameras in different parts of the Pu’u O Umi Natural Area Reserve in the north of the island—an area with a high degree of contiguous native forest. With help from land managers, they identified four areas with differing densities of pigs. After capturing images from these areas, they confirmed population densities with statistical modeling.

To get a good idea about the type of vegetation growing in areas with different numbers of pigs, the researchers conducted various types of analyses. In areas with camera traps, they recorded understory plant species and their abundance.

They categorized plant species on a spectrum based on whether the plants produced short-lived leaves with rapid growth, or hardier, long lived leaves with a slow growth rate.

Peyton and his team found that areas with more pig disturbance typically had a higher proportion of plants that produced lighter leaves more quickly.

Those are usually nonnative plants. Native Hawaiian plants are more often the type that produce hardier, heavier leaves.

While some fast-growing native plants grew in disturbed areas, it seemed that pig disturbance was correlated more with nonnative plants. These nonnative, fast growing plants are well positioned to take advantage of the disturbance from the swine.

“Native and nonnative species are responding differently to [pig] abundance,” Peyton said.

While further research would be needed to confirm this, Peyton speculated that sunlight availability may be one reason why certain plants do better than others, especially when there is a lot of disturbance.

“The scale of disturbance matters for how these species are responding to light,” he said.

By Rachel Bowman For Dailymail.Com

Published: 07:05 BST, 22 July 2024 | Updated: 07:07 BST, 22 July 2024

A small boat harbor has claimed three cars in just over a year, igniting a very puzzled response from the local mayor. 

The Honokohau Small Boat Harbor in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, has a reputation for luring vehicles into its waters – but authorities say the common theme is ‘operator error’. 

In the past year, two unsuspecting motorists launched into the marina while following GPS directions.

But the latest incident appears to be just a coincidence when a 33-year-old woman parked her vehicle on the boat ramp while experiencing car trouble on July 13. 

As officers tried to help her, she drove the car into the water leaving it partially submerged while she escaped.

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On July 13 around 8 p.m., a 33-year-old woman parked her vehicle on the boat ramp while experiencing car trouble then drove into the water

Three vehicles have driven into the water at the Honokohau Small Boat Harbor (pictured) in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii in just over a year

The incidents have baffled the mayor who has been shocked as each one occurs. 

‘The first time I heard it, the thought in my head was, “you got to be joking”,’ said Hawaii County Mayor Mitch Roth.

‘The third was — are you serious? This is just another form of people not paying attention to what they’re doing.’

On April 29, 2023, a tourist driving a Chrysler Town & Country had been trying to find a Manta Ray Snorkel tour company and reportedly took a wrong turn while following their GPS directions. 

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Video captured crew members of a sailboat dive into the harbor and help the female driver of the van escape through the window before carrying her to shallower waters.

The other passenger, also a woman, and reportedly the sister of the driver, escaped out the window on the other side of the car.

On April 29, 2023, a tourist had been trying to find a Manta Ray Snorkel tour company and reportedly took a wrong turn while following their GPS directions

Though the passengers were making active attempts to escape the car, neither looked especially alarmed about what was going on.

A few weeks later on May 29, 2023, another woman was following GPS directions when she took a turn down the boat ramp, according to HawaiiNewsNow.

The driver said she was following directions and thought she was going through a big puddle when she crossed her 2020 Ford Edge into the water around 8 p.m. 

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Roth said he is working to get the GPS issued figured out because it is not the first time drivers have had these incidents.

‘It’s getting in touch with Google and all the GPS manufacturers that have their maps. Not just in this incident but tourists going into places that are off limits that they really shouldn’t be going to,’ Roth said.

On May 29, 2023, another woman was following GPS directions when she took a turn down the boat ramp

An official with the Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources Division of Boating & Ocean Recreation said the incidents are ‘operator error,’ and the boat ramp is ‘hard to miss.’

A spokesperson from Google told the local news outlet, ‘Safety is a top priority, and we’re actively investigating which navigation tools and routes were used in these incidents.’

‘While we have not yet identified any routes in Google Maps that lead into the harbor, we’ll work with local authorities to make updates if necessary to accurately route drivers.’

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