CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – Across Illinois, trees are dying, gardens are being threatened, and children are literally running from drifting herbicides, according to a new report from Prairie Rivers Network.
Hidden in Plain Sight summarizes six years of study about herbicide drift – the movement of toxic chemicals through the air to a non-target site – across rural and urban Illinois. The report shows that herbicide drift, largely from the agricultural industry, is damaging wild and cultivated plants and trees throughout Illinois, threatening human health and impairing our ability to adapt to a changing climate.
“Nowhere is safe from chemical trespass,” said Kim Erndt-Pitcher, Director of Ecological Health at Prairie Rivers Network. “Herbicide drift demonstrates a disregard for property rights. Again and again, trees and plants on public land, private land, in parks, schoolyards, homes, gardens and forests are being injured by drifting herbicides. Our current system for preventing harm from pesticide drift is not working. Illinois needs to do better.”
Prairie Rivers Network, through our Tree and Plant Health Monitoring Program launched in 2018, has been studying symptoms of herbicide drift and damage to non-target broadleaf plants and trees across rural and urban Illinois. Testing was conducted over a six-year period at 280 sites in more than 40 counties throughout the state. We found widespread symptoms of injuries and an alarming decline in health among our trees.
“Conventional wisdom tends to dismiss pesticide drift as controlled, sporadic, or inconsequential,” said Martin Kemper, a co-author of the report and retired Illinois Department of Natural Resources scientist. “This scientific report by Prairie Rivers Network, conducted in the places it matters — gardens, backyards, school yards, parks, and natural areas — shows that such drift is pervasive and insidious.”
Stories about the impact of herbicide drift have also been shared by those we talked to, including managers of public lands, private landowners, and outdoor enthusiasts. Their voices are also included in the report.
“Herbicide drift has taken the joy from gardening,” says Patsy Hirsch, of Kane County. “We have made the painful decision to forego harvest of our garden vegetables due to repeated herbicide exposures from the many lawn applications that take place in our neighborhood. The damage is everywhere we go. You cannot unsee it, once you know how to identify herbicide damage symptoms.”
The Bluestem Hall Nature School is a nature-based preschool (also offering K-1 classes) in rural Urbana. It shares space with the adjacent Barnhart Prairie Nature Preserve, which is a vital part of the school’s outdoor experiential learning program. However, the school and preserve are surrounded by farm fields, and the students are frequently exposed to pesticides while outside.
“Our nature-based program is designed to cultivate magical, respectful, and wondrous connections between children and their natural environment. How can we do this if we are literally running indoors to escape the chemical drift in our community? It raises the question — who has the rights to air quality? And the answer is clearly not in favor of our smallest citizens,” said Abbie Frank, executive director of Bluestem Hall Nature School.
The Illinois constitution, passed in 1970, guarantees that each person has the right to a healthful environment. However, Hidden in Plain Sight shows that no matter where you go in Illinois, you can’t escape herbicide drift. Tissue samples showed detectable levels of herbicides in leaves of 95% of trees we tested. Nearly all sites had symptoms of drift every year.
“If people’s homes, schoolyards, public parks and gardens aren’t safe from herbicide pollution, how is that a ‘healthful environment?’” Erndt-Pitcher said. “Illinois has lost millions of acres of habitat to agriculture. What is left of our native prairies and the species that rely on them are barely hanging on. We need to step up and protect what we have left, before it’s too late.”
Trees play a vital role in climate change, sequestering carbon, improving air quality, and cooling urban areas. The drift is triggering a chain of adverse effects that are destroying habitats and food sources for native wildlife.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recognizes that injuries are widely under-reported. Much attention has been paid to the damage caused by the herbicide dicamba, which has damaged millions of acres of cropland and natural areas across the Midwest and South; however, the report finds that there has been consistent drift from many herbicides, including 2,4-D, glufosinate, atrazine and others. In fact, 2,4-D was found even more often than dicamba.
The report calls for an updated regulatory structure in Illinois, one that looks into herbicide drift and provides growers with the necessary support to diversify farming systems. The report also calls on the Illinois General Assembly to adequate fund enforcement of the Illinois Pesticide Act.
“It’s time that we educate the public on how widespread herbicide drift is in Illinois, and act to stop it,” Erndt-Pitcher said.
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At Prairie Rivers Network (PRN), we protect water, heal land, and inspire change. Using the creative power of science, law, and collective action, we protect and restore our rivers, return healthy soils and diverse wildlife to our lands, and transform how we care for the earth and for each other. PRN is the Illinois affiliate of the National Wildlife Federation.
