{"id":22113,"date":"2026-04-01T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/driftlessareamag.com\/unicdn\/?p=22113"},"modified":"2026-04-19T13:21:01","modified_gmt":"2026-04-19T18:21:01","slug":"the-wind-and-the-withered","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/driftlessareamag.com\/unicdn\/2026\/04\/01\/the-wind-and-the-withered\/","title":{"rendered":"The Wind and the Withered"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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o<\/span>ne day, about a decade ago, Seth Swoboda was mowing his lawn when he noticed something strange.<\/span><\/strong> He looked up at this big black oak tree and saw that the canopy was thin and the leaves were all curled and contorted.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe tree looked like it was starting to die,\u201d Seth said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Then he looked around and saw those contorted leaves on some of his other trees too. By then, though, it was already too late. The trees would mysteriously die.<\/span><\/p>\n

What was happening at Seth\u2019s place in rural Illinois was happening all over the state and the Midwest.<\/span><\/p>\n

Seth asked his neighbor, a biologist, what could possibly be killing his trees. And his neighbor had a hunch. He thought herbicides were drifting from farmland onto Seth\u2019s property and wreaking havoc. He just had to prove it.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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