Annie and Dennis Holtz worked hard this spring to establish their organic farm on 10-and-a-half acres in Beecher.

On the south side of Corning Road, cover crops of crimson clover, oats and peas form a green and red-dotted carpet that hugs a gentle rise and undulates in the wind. But elsewhere on the property, large patches of bare earth reveal fragments of dead corn stalks.

After raising seedlings on the kitchen table of their home in Steger, the couple planted several varieties of cut flowers, cabbages, onions, leeks, tomatoes, squash, pumpkins, peppers, watermelons, garlic, peppers, elderberries, hemp and several fruit and nut trees.

Despite their best efforts, half the plants failed to thrive or simply died.

“Everything is stunted, all of the crops we were counting on are damaged,” said Dennis Holtz. “It’s not a total loss, but it’s still a huge setback, probably tens of thousands of dollars. Our plan was to make $50,000.”

Annie Holtz works in the information technology field. Dennis Holtz is a self-employed blacksmith. They will likely weather the setback, but they’re not happy about their farm’s rough start. They blame herbicide drift from nearby corn and soybean fields.

They are also determined to let people know about their situation.

“Unless people voice concern and submit their complaints, nothing will change,” said Annie Holtz.

The Holtzes recently filed a complaint with the Illinois Department of Agriculture.

A year ago, Mike Schmidt did the same. He said herbicide drift damaged several trees on 80 acres of forested land he owns in Monee. Prior to that, he registered the property with the Illinois Department of Natural Resources as an Acres for Wildlife property, which allows him free access to IDNR expertise for restoring the land as wildlife habitat.

Schmidt recently met with the Holtzes to examine plant damage on their farm.

“This is my second year of being aware of the problem,” Schmidt said. “The effects don’t show up for a while, so it’s hard to know exactly when the damage was done.”

Schmidt examined several trees planted as windbreaks by previous landowners.

“Toasted,” he said. “The leaves are all toasted.”

He was holding small branches cut from mulberry, wild cherry and Osage orange trees.

Much like the leaves on Schmidt’s trees, they showed telltale signs of cupping, curling and shriveling away altogether. The branch from an Osage orange remained supple and green beneath the gray outer layer of bark, which may have signaled chemical injury rather than disease.

Schmidt reported the injury of his trees to the IDOA in May 2021, but it took until December to get a response. This left him in a bind as far as receiving any compensation for damages.

“When I filled out an application for an insurance claim, the company wanted to know why I hadn’t contacted them sooner,” he said.

Determining who or what exactly is responsible adds considerably to the challenge of addressing herbicide drift.

“Herbicide drift is not easy to diagnose as it depends on the sensitivity of the plants affected, the herbicide, the rate, weather, growing conditions, plant health, etc.,” said Michelle Wiesbrook, a specialist working for the University of Illinois Extension’s pesticide safety education program. “Different herbicides result in different symptoms, and insect and disease damage can look very similar … Often, plants will grow out of their injury symptoms, but not always.”

To help organic farmers, specialty growers and gardeners, the U of I Extension recently published an online guide to reporting herbicide/pesticide drift at https://extension.illinois.edu/sites/default/files/public_pesticide_drift_complaint_guide.pdf.

Wiesbrook also recommends those affected register with an organization called Field Watch, which makes herbicide and pesticide applicators aware of areas needing special consideration and protection.

The Holtzes have taken pains to educate themselves about herbicide drift. With fog giving way to a recent warm Sunday morning, they speculated that conditions were ripe for the herbicides dicamba and 2,4-D to vaporize and move to their property.

The Holtzes contacted neighboring farmers, but soon discovered they had sprayed their fields after the Holtzes noticed damage. “So, it couldn’t be our neighbors,” Dennis Holtz said. “It could be something up to a mile away that drifted and landed on our farm.”

Due to the growing resistance of weeds to glyphosate, commonly sold as Roundup, herbicide manufacturers have ramped up production of dicamba in the last five years. Developed in 1942 and registered with the Environmental Protection Agency in 1967, the broad-spectrum herbicide has been proven to drift in both agricultural and lawn care applications.

“No pesticide (or herbicide) applicator wants his or her application to move off target, and most will take careful steps to prevent drift from occurring,” Wiesbrook said. “Unfortunately, herbicide drift still occurs sometimes and can result in damaged plants. Sometimes all it takes is a whiff as some plants are supersensitive.”

Restricting applications to lower temperatures may help. The hot summer of 2019, which included an extended deadline for dicamba use, yielded 723 dicamba-related herbicide drift complaints to the IDOA. A milder 2020 and restrictions not to apply dicamba above 85 degrees may have helped reduce complaints to 145. Dicamba-related complaints in 2021 numbered 179.

Overall pesticide complaints in Illinois have followed a similar pattern for the last three years, numbering 971 in 2019, 346 in 2020 and 362 in 2021.

Recent product label instructions for applicators also suggest mixing in substances that can curb dicamba’s volatility and prevent drift.

But while some believe herbicides like dicamba can be managed, others are concerned for trees and native plants.

Robbie Doerhoff, a Missouri Department of Conservation forestry entomologist, confirmed a threat to trees in her 2021 YouTube presentation called Dicamba/2,4D & Trees: Old Herbicides Causing New Problems.

“We don’t know for sure if the chemicals actually kill the trees, but we do know they force them to grow faster than their food supply,” Doerhoff said in the video. “This might not kill them, but it weakens them against other things like disease and emerald ash borer. It’s the straw that breaks the camel’s back.”

During the 2020 growing season, Patsy Hirsch, of Elgin, began noticing cupping, curling and loss of leaves on the oak, hackberry, redbud and hickory trees surrounding her home. She also noted injuries to vegetable plants and flowers in her garden.

IDOA investigators confirmed the tree and plant injuries were due to herbicide drift related to lawn and agricultural applications of dicamba and 2,4-D.

“I’ve been told my trees will not recover,” she said, adding that her property represents “a collision zone between two industries — industrial ag and lawn care.”

Due to thousands of herbicide drift complaints in several states, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit ruled the sale and use of dicamba illegal in 2020. The American Farm Bureau Federation and the American Soybean Council argued that farmers would experience crop loss and financial harm. The EPA later re-approved continued use of dicamba through mid-2025.

Meanwhile, Hirsch intends to continue spreading awareness about herbicide drift. She circulates a document she created called “Future Shade-less summer,” in which she describes the 90% loss of leaves on her oak trees as seeming like fall in summer.

In 2020, she invited Illinois State Rep. Anna Moeller and Kane County officials to see the damage in her yard. “The tour was very eye-opening,” said Rep. Moeller. “Until then, I was not aware of the deleterious effects of dicamba on native plant species and pollinators, which are essential for food production as well.”

That new awareness prompted Rep. Moeller, who chairs the House Democratic Green Caucus, to introduce House Bill 4363 which would revise the Illinois Pesticide Act to ban dicamba use in Illinois.

Hoping to encourage additional interest in the legislation, Hirsch invited Rep. Moeller back to her home on Thursday, June 23, along with local politicians and representatives of Illinois Public Interest Research Group.

Keeping an eye out for tree damage outside of Elgin, Hirsch has noted thinning tree canopies in other parts of Illinois.

“You can go on GoogleEarth and see a thinning of the treetops in Beverly,” she said.

Susan DeGrane is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.