Monarch butterfly on swamp milkweed

By Linda Horn, Sierra Club Monarch and Pollinator Team

Herbicides kill or damage the flowering plants that pollinators depend on. Herbicide drift can affect plants sometimes over a mile away from the intended application site.

Prairie Rivers Network recently published Pesticide Drift In Public Spaces, which explores the frequency and distribution of pesticide drift in the places where children and adults play and learn. Ten parks or schoolyards were sampled across the state during the 5 warm weather months in 2025. Over this period of time, every site and sampling event demonstrated the presence of herbicides and/or fungicides. Herbicide drift is nothing new, but the continued trespass and associated damage caused by these chemicals is taking a huge toll. It is impacting the health of our natural spaces where wildlife live and people recreate, the livelihood specialty growers, our ability to have beautiful healthy gardens and yards, and the quality of the air we breathe and our very health.

If these random parks and schoolyards are getting an average of 20 exposure events during five months of the year, there is a high probability that almost all of our parks and schoolyards are getting some exposure from chemical trespass.

From the report:  “Land areas that could be identified as potential sources include agricultural fields or pastures, golf courses, transportation and utility rights of way, commercial, industrial, and residential areas, and areas of intense targeted herbicide treatments…”

Here’s What You Can Do:

Ask potential sources to make sure they DO NOT USE ester formulations of 2,4 D and follow these other recommendations.

Legislation has been introduced in the past to reduce the severity of exposure and damage to trees and other vegetation.

• A bill presently pending in the Illinois state legislature, PESTICIDE-NOTICE-SCHOOLS act (HB 1596), requires applicators making large-scale pesticide applications to provide advance notice before spraying near schools and public parks – protecting children, families, and communities from unnecessary exposure. Contact your state legislators and encourage them to support this and following bill.
• HB 1645 (PESTICIDE-2,4-D BAN) bans the sale and use of ester formulations of 2,4-D, a highly volatile pesticide known to drift far beyond its target, posing serious risks to people, crops, and ecosystems. Importantly, producers will still have access to other effective 2,4-D formulations that do not pose the same level of risk. Let your legislators know you are looking to them to protect the public.