Iowa

Iowa’s white oaks are dying. New test kits could show why.

Published

2 years ago

May 19, 2024

Iowa’s white oaks are dying. New test kits could show why.

Iowa Department of Natural Resources forest health technician Mark Runkel (right) and GIS specialist John Mullen (left) look for trees last Monday exhibiting signs of the oak wilt fungus at Hickory Grove Park in Story County’s Colo. Foresters are using a new test kit that allows them to test for oak wilt in the field. (Nick Rohlman/The Gazette)

COLO — More than a decade into a mysterious epidemic killing off white oak trees, Iowa foresters hope a new test kit will help them quickly screen trees in the field for half the cost of laboratory tests.

Inspired by COVID-19 rapid tests, a Minnesota startup developed a kit that amplifies the DNA of a fungus spreading among oaks weakened by drought. The Iowa Department of Natural Resources hopes to use information gathered from these kits to isolate infected trees and protect others.

“A lot of people are concerned about this white oak decline,” said Tivon Feeley, Forest Health Program leader for the Iowa DNR. Foresters want to know whether they should replant white oaks or choose other species. “Right now, I can’t tell them. (But) this test gives us a lot of tools we can start using.”

Background

Around 2010, foresters across the Midwest started noticing centuries-old white oak trees dying off in just one season and didn’t know why. Oak wilt, a fungal disease spread by insects or through the root systems of infected trees, was a possible culprit, but most foresters hadn’t seen it be so fast or so deadly.

A fungal mat, likely the result of an oak wilt infection, is seen on a tree last Monday at Hickory Grove Park in Colo in Story County. The fungus Bretiella fagacearum causes oak wilt. Fungal mats develop and help to spread the fungal spores through the air and via beetles that feed on the trees. Additionally, the infection can spread through the interconnected root systems of nearby trees. (Nick Rohlman/The Gazette)

“With this oak decline, we have two to three dead trees almost every other acre,” Amana Society Forester Tim Krauss said in October 2022. “We have to harvest the dead trees because we only have a year until they are no good. We can make our budget by just cutting dead trees. The downside is, they are not coming back.”

When 200-year-old and 300-year-old giants are felled, increased sunlight on the forest floor causes an explosion of invasive species and less-desirable trees, including hackberry and elm, Krauss said.

Climate change has played a role in the rapid decline of white oaks, with drought making the trees more vulnerable to disease or pests.

The U.S. Forest Service and the Canadian Council of Forest Ministers planned a pilot project with a new test kit to quickly determine if a tree has oak wilt, but efforts to develop the kits at the University of Toronto fell through in 2023.

What’s happened since

Abdennour Abbas, a professor of nanotechnology at the University of Minnesota, stepped up in 2023 with PureBioX, a St. Paul, Minn., startup that develops rapid tests for use in health care, pharmaceutical, food and agricultural industries.

“The regular test is a cell culture and it takes a very long time,” said Anil Meher, a PureBioX analytical chemist who last week visited Iowa for a trial of the oak wilt test kits at Hickory Grove Park near Colo, in Story County.

Chemist Anil Meher tests samples last Monday from trees exhibiting signs of oak wilt at Hickory Grove Park in Colo in Story County. Foresters are using a new test kit that allows them to test for oak wilt in the field rather than sending samples to a lab. Mehar and his employer, Minnesota-based PureBioX, have developed a test kit for oak wilt that allows foresters to test for the fungal infection on location. (Nick Rohlman/The Gazette)

When plant diagnostic laboratories test trees for oak wilt, the results can take two weeks to two months and cost $70 to $300, the Iowa DNR’s Feeley said. PureBioX’s test kits take one hour and cost about $30 each.

“It’s quite simple so you can do it in the field setting,” Meher said.

Mark Runkel, an Iowa DNR forest health technician, and John Mullen, a GIS analyst for the department, walked out into a stand of trees at Hickory Grove to look for white oaks with signs of oak wilt. The outer leaves may turn brown, while the veins stay green. And when a branch of an infected tree is removed, the cut ends smell like fermented fruit.

Iowa Department of Natural Resources forest health technician Mark Runkel takes a core sample last Monday from a tree exhibiting signs of oak wilt at Hickory Grove Park in Colo. (Nick Rohlman/The Gazette)

From each tree, they gathered a cluster of leaves, a branch and a 3-inch trunk core. If the tests of leaves are effective in determining infection, future tests won’t require branches or trunk cores.

Mullen marked the locations of the trees in a tablet and gave each a unique ID. Mapping the infected trees is an early step to determine how oak wilt might be spreading.

Iowa Department of Natural Resources GIS specialist John Mullen marks the location last Monday of a sample from an oak tree at Hickory Grove Park in Colo. Mullen develops GIS layers to help track the locations from which samples are collected as well as the spread of the oak wilt fungus. (Nick Rohlman/The Gazette)

Meher and Feeley put each sample into a tube with chemicals that break down the tree matter. Meher extracted the DNA and put it into a tiny vial, which is heated on a portable pad to amplify the DNA. If the Bretiella fagacearum fungus, which causes oak wilt, is present, the liquid will turn yellow. If the fungus is not present, the liquid turns pink.

If foresters find isolated trees with oak wilt, they could spray herbicide on those trees in hopes of halting the transmission through underground root systems, Feeley said.

Iowa Department of Natural Resources forest health technician Mark Runkel holds a core sample last Monday from a tree exhibiting signs of oak wilt at Hickory Grove Park in Colo. Samples of infected trees often smell strongly of cantaloupe or fermented fruit. (Nick Rohlman/The Gazette)

The team plans to test trees in the Amana Society’s 7,000-acre timber, in Marshall County, in the Loess Hills in Western Iowa and in the Des Moines area. They also are putting out insect traps in forests with oak wilt to see what kinds of bugs might be carrying the fungus. Results of these studies will go into the 2024 Forest Health report.

Iowa Department of Natural Resources forest health technician Mark Runkel (right) looks last Monday for trees exhibiting signs of oak wilt at Hickory Grove Park in Colo in Story County. Foresters are using a new test kit that allows them to test for the fungus in the field rather than sending samples to a lab. (Nick Rohlman/The Gazette)

Comments: (319) 339-3157; erin.jordan@thegazette.com

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Iowa

Iowa Great Lakes businessman Butch Parks dies at 81

Published

1 hour ago

January 9, 2026

Press Room

Iowa Great Lakes businessman Butch Parks dies at 81

SPIRIT LAKE, Iowa (KTIV) – The Iowa Great Lakes community is remembering Leo “Butch” Parks, a longtime lakes-area businessman and founder of Parks Marina.

He died Tuesday, Jan. 6, at the age of 81.

Parks established the marina on East Lake Okoboji in 1983, growing it from a small fishing boat operation into a business with marinas, sales, service, rentals, storage, and popular destinations like the Barefoot Bar.

Parks and his wife, Debbie, also owned Okoboji Boat Works for 23 years.

Funeral services are set for Friday, Jan. 16, at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Spirit Lake. It will be followed by a celebration of life at Snapper’s restaurant in Okoboji that evening.

Want to get the latest news and weather from Siouxland’s News Source? Follow these links to download our KTIV News app and our First Alert Weather app.

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Iowa

Iowa woman accused of pandering for prostitution and harassment after incidents at Casey’s and a daycare

Published

13 hours ago

January 8, 2026

Press Room

Iowa woman accused of pandering for prostitution and harassment after incidents at Casey’s and a daycare

AURELIA, Iowa (KTIV) – A Northwest Iowa woman is facing charges of harassment and pandering for prostitution after two incidents took place in December 2025.

Forty-seven-year-old Kristal Miller of Odebolt was taken into custody on an arrest warrant and faces three charges: one count of pandering for prostitution and two counts of first-degree harassment, according to court documents.

Kristal Miller(Cherokee County Jail)

The charges stem from two separate incidents that took place on Thursday, Dec. 18. 2025.

According to court documents, at 6:15 a.m., Miller reportedly went to the Casey’s General Store, located at 100 Pearl St. in Aurelia. Documents state Miller approached an employee and customers, requesting money from them.

Authorities state Miller claimed she was wanted by the FBI and told people, if anyone called the police, “she would kill them.”

During this encounter, she also allegedly asked an employee to remove the string from her hooded sweatshirt. Documents state when the employee refused this request, she threatened to strangle them.

That same day at 7 a.m., Miller reportedly approached a female employee outside an Aurelia daycare and asked them for money.

Court documents stated Miller suggested the unnamed employee leave her boyfriend. Miller reportedly told the employee, if she did, then she and Miller would both be paid.

Authorities say when she was told no by the employee, Miller became upset and started yelling at them.

Miller also allegedly threatened to “steal her car” and ”take her away to her guys to start a new life.”

She was booked into the Cherokee County Jail on a cash-only bond of $5,000. A preliminary hearing has been scheduled in Cherokee for Friday, Jan. 9, at 10 a.m.

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Iowa

Iowa law on police appeals ‘constitutionally vacuous,’ prosecutor says

Published

1 day ago

January 8, 2026

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Iowa law on police appeals ‘constitutionally vacuous,’ prosecutor says

The Iowa Supreme Court is reviewing a 2024 law that allows law enforcement officers to appeal their placement on a Brady-Giglio list.
A dispute between Jefferson County’s attorney and sheriff led to the sheriff being placed on the list, which identifies officers with credibility issues.
The county attorney argues the law is unconstitutional because it lets judges interfere with a prosecutor’s duty to disclose evidence to defendants.

A feud between two Jefferson County officials has landed before the Iowa Supreme Court, which must decide if a 2024 addition to Iowa’s Rights of Peace Officers law is unconstitutional.

Jefferson County Attorney Chauncey Moulding is asking the state’s high court to overturn what he calls the “constitutionally vacuous” law, which allows officers to petition the courts to be removed from their county’s Brady-Giglio list.

Named for two U.S. Supreme Court decisions, the lists compiled by prosecutors identify law enforcement officers and others whose credibility is in question, and it can provide grounds for questioning their testimony in court.

After a dispute over a case involving a sheriff’s deputy’s use of force, Moulding in 2024 notified Jefferson County Sheriff Bart Richmond he was placing him on the Brady-Giglio list. Richmond petitioned a court to reverse Moulding’s decision, and a district judge did, finding Richmond’s actions in connection with the case, while unprofessional, did not bring his honesty or credibility into question.

In his appeal, Moulding argues that’s not up to the court to decide, and that the law lets judges improperly intrude on prosecutors’ professional judgment and, ultimately, defendants’ rights.

“The practical real application of (the 2024 law) is to create a Kafkaesque scenario where a criminal defendant could face the prospect of criminal charges involving a State witness who is so lacking in credibility that the State’s attorney has qualms about even calling him to testify, but is prevented from disclosure,” Moulding wrote. “Such a situation is unconscionable, and underlines the constitutional vacuousness of the statute itself.”

The court has not yet scheduled arguments for the case, which could have impacts far beyond Jefferson County. Attorney Charles Gribble, representing Richmond, said this is just one of three Iowa Brady-Giglio appeals he personally is involved in.

What is a Brady-Giglio list?

Under the Fifth Amendment, criminal defendants are entitled to due process of law. In Brady v. Maryland in 1963 and in subsequent cases the U.S. Supreme Court held that due process requires a prosecutor to disclose any known exculpatory evidence to the defense. That includes anything giving rise to doubts about the credibility of the prosecution’s witnesses, including law enforcement officers.

In 2022, Iowa formalized that process by mandating prosecuting agencies maintain a Brady-Giglio list of officers whose credibility can be questioned due to past dishonesty or other misconduct. The law requires agencies to notify officers when they are being put on a list and allows them to seek reconsideration.

Being placed on a list can damage or destroy an officer’s career, as prosecutors generally will decline to call them as witnesses or to bring charges that would depend on their testimony.

2024 law gives courts a role in Brady-Giglio lists

Iowa’s 2024 law went beyond requiring officers be notified of their placement on a Brady-Giglio list by giving them the right to appeal to a district court if their prosecuting agency refuses to take them off a list. The law requires judges to confidentially review evidence and allows them to affirm, modify or reverse an officer’s Brady-Giglio listing “as justice may require.”

In less than two years, courts have reversed local prosecutors on several Brady-Giglio placements, including a messy Henry County dispute in which prosecutors accused a sheriff’s deputy of making misleading statements on a search warrant application.

What happened in Jefferson County?

The lawsuit before the Iowa Supreme Court involves an April 2024 traffic stop by a Jefferson County deputy. As laid out in a subsequent memo by Moulding, video recordings show the deputy handling the driver roughly and, when the man complains, telling him “I can do whatever I want” and, “You’re not going to tell me what I can and can’t do. … You’re going to learn what respect is, young man.”

After learning about the incident, Moulding wrote, he repeatedly emailed Richmond, asking if the deputy’s actions had violated any county policies. Richmond did not respond. Concerned about possible litigation against the county, Moulding then asked another county to conduct an investigation. While the details are disputed, Moulding accuses Richmond of stonewalling both his office and the outside investigators and instructing his subordinates also not to cooperate.

“A county sheriff ordering deputies not to cooperate with an inquiry into a deputy’s use of force represents a fundamental lapse in judgment and raised serious concerns regarding the Sheriff’s honesty, candor and ethics as a law enforcement official,” Moulding wrote.

He scheduled a meeting that Richmond did not attend and then placed him on the county’s Brady-Giglio list. In an emailed statement, Moulding called the entire matter “unfortunate.”

“Frankly, I am shocked that instead of attempting to address this matter with my office cooperatively, the Sheriff instead decided to stonewall an investigation, stonewall the Brady-Giglio investigation, and then take this matter to court instead of sitting down and addressing the matter like an adult and an elected official,” he said.

In a letter, Moulding warned Richmond that he would no longer be called as a law enforcement witness and advised him to limit his involvement with criminal investigations, as “your engagement in such activities could likely negatively impact the outcomes in court.”

Judge disagrees with sheriff’s placement on list

After Moulding denied Richmond’s request for reconsideration, Richmond filed suit. In February 2025, Judge Jeffrey Farrell ruled Richmond should be removed from the list.

Farrell’s order criticized both parties, finding that Moulding had failed to comply with some procedural elements of the law but that Richmond could have avoided the whole situation with “basic and professional” responses to Moulding’s emails. Nonetheless, he found Richmond’s actions did not demonstrate dishonesty or deceit that would justify placement on a Brady list.

“This is not a case in which an officer lied to a court, was convicted of a crime, manufactured or destroyed evidence, or committed some other act that would serve as the basis for impeachment in any criminal case,” Farrell wrote. “Game-playing the county attorney is not the standard of professionalism that Iowans expect of our elected county sheriffs,” he added, but does not constitute grounds for a Brady-Giglio listing.

Prosecutor appeals, argues law is unconstitutional

In his appeal, Moulding does not address Farrell’s factual findings, instead asking the court only to decide whether the law is constitutional.

“The most glaring constitutional defect in (the 2024 law) is that it impedes a criminal Defendant’s substantive and procedural due processes of law, and right to a fair trial,” the appeal says. “These fundamental rights constitute the bedrock raisons d’être for the entire body of Brady-Giglio jurisprudence in the first place.”

Iowa appears to be the only state with a law allowing officers to sue to be removed from a Brad-Giglio list, but Moulding cites a recent federal lawsuit where a judge rejected a South Dakota officer’s attempt to get removed from a list, finding the request “in essence, asks this Court to require a State’s Attorney to violate the constitution.” He further argues that the law violates the constitutional separation of powers and is “so poorly drafted as to be unenforceable and void for vagueness.”

Sheriff’s attorney says single lapse of judgment is not grounds for listing

Gribble, Richmond’s attorney, argued in his Supreme Court brief that the law is constitutional and that the sheriff’s actions fall well short of Brady-Giglio standards.

“Under (the 2024 law), placement on the Brady-Giglio list results not from a single lapse of judgment but rather from repeated, sustained, intentional and egregious acts over a period of time,” he wrote. “Thus, while a singular act of bad judgement may undermine a police officer’s credibility in a particular case, placement on the Brady-Giglio list places a permanent and unreviewable scarlet letter on the officer that he/she is unlikely to be able to ever overcome.”

He also suggests that a court order removing an officer from a list “does not in any way alter the prosecuting attorney’s duty to provide exculpatory evidence in all cases.” In an interview, he argued there should be a legal distinction between prosecutors disclosing concerns about an officer’s conduct in the case in which it occurred, and doing so in every future case involving them.

“To me, that’s what Brady-Giglio is for, not for occasional or first-time wrongs, even if established of a police officer, but those that have a history of that sort of thing,” he said.

The Supreme Court has not yet set a date for arguments in the case.

William Morris covers courts for the Des Moines Register. He can be contacted at wrmorris2@registermedia.com or 715-573-8166.

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