Oak tatters from acetochlor contamination in 2026 at Prairie Oaks Reservation in LeClaire, Iowa. (Ph

Chemical Trespassing on Iowa's State Tree Cannot Be Punished

Tony Singh's 20-Year Quest to Address Pesticide Damage in His Oak Savanna

In 1996, Tony Singh began rewilding a plot of land in LeClaire, hoping to restore its oak savanna, native prairie, woodlands, and wetlands. Fewer than five years later, he noticed the leaves on his oak trees were in tatters.

The resulting deformation of the emerging leaves is heartbreaking. Over the last 20 years, we have called several times, and asked for an inspector to come and collect damaged leaf samples for the analysis by IDALS, the Iowa department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship. The results come back with a cocktail of noxious chemicals, and always include Acetochlor, Atrazine, and, in recent years, Dicamba and 2,4-D.