Iowa

Expert says 2020 derecho may have helped poison hemlock thrive in new places

Published

6 months ago

June 29, 2025

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Expert says 2020 derecho may have helped poison hemlock thrive in new places

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (KCRG) – Poisonous plants are continuing to spread in the state of Iowa.

Last summer, TV9 brought you a story about poison ivy and poison hemlock spreading in eastern Iowa.

A year later, an expert with Iowa State University says there are a variety of things causing poison hemlock to spread.

The plant with the white flower on top looks pretty unassuming.

“It looks a little bit like Queen Anne’s Lace,” said Shelly Wilson. Wilson was enjoying the Freedom Festival in Cedar Rapids this weekend with her friends when TV9 asked if she’d ever heard of Poison Hemlock.

“I have never heard of it, it’s always good to be aware,” said Donna Moeller, Wilson’s friend.

“I had never heard of it either,” Wilson added.

Experts at Iowa State University say the plant is highly toxic to people and animals and can be deadly if ingested.

“One of the problems with poison hemlock is that it can look like some species that are edible,” said Meaghan Anderson, a field agronomist at ISU.

Anderson says these dangerous weeds may be popping up in more places than they used to for a variety of reasons, including the 2020 derecho.

“It didn’t physically move these plants anywhere that they weren’t already. I think that’s fairly unlikely,” said Anderson. “I think what the derecho probably did do was it opened up a lot of what was historically good tree cover under fairly full shade, and perhaps provided lots of species, including poison hemlock, a little bit more of a niche where it got more sunlight and more opportunity for some of these invasive species that we think of like our bush honeysuckle type species, poison hemlock, poison ivy, garlic mustard, all kinds of these species we know we don’t like to see on the edges of woodlands or within woodlands, but it probably provided them with a pretty good opportunity to get better established than they would have if there was full canopy cover in these tree areas.”

Another way the plant spreads is through the movement of soil caused by human activity.

“We’re really effective as people in building things and expanding things and we move a lot of stuff around on equipment, so I do imagine that’s helping it a bit,” Anderson said.

The weed is commonly found along the edges of woodlands, fence lines, and crop fields, and is becoming increasingly common in ditches alongside roads.

If it pops up on your property, you can remove it yourself, just use caution. Wearing gloves is recommended.

“You can dig up those giant plants right now. Given the fact that they’re basically all flowering everywhere, I probably wouldn’t just lay it down on the landscape and leave it to rot, I would probably dispose of it as trash this time of year,” Anderson said.

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Iowa

Watch live as bodies of Iowa National Guard soldiers return to US

Published

7 hours ago

December 17, 2025

Press Room

Watch live as bodies of Iowa National Guard soldiers return to US

President Donald Trump, Gov. Kim Reynolds, members of Iowa’s congressional delegation and families are receiving the bodies of fallen Iowa National Guard soldiers Sgt. William Nathaniel “Nate” Howard, 29, of Marshalltown, and Sgt. Edgar Torres-Tovar, 25, of Des Moines and a civilian interpreter, Ayad Mansoor Sakat, of Michigan.

The dignified transfer ceremony is expected to happen this afternoon at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware.

All three were killed Saturday, Dec. 13, by an attacker who targeted a convoy of American and Syrian forces in Palmyra, Syria, before being shot dead.

Their caskets will be transferred from the plane to an awaiting vehicle and taken to the Air Force Mortuary Affairs Operations building at the Dover base “for positive identification by the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System and preparation for their final resting place.”

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Iowa

I-80 crash cleanup continues after weekend pile-up in eastern Iowa

Published

19 hours ago

December 17, 2025

Press Room

I-80 crash cleanup continues after weekend pile-up in eastern Iowa

WEST BRANCH, Iowa (KCRG) – Cleanup crews are still working to remove vehicles from Interstate 80 in eastern Iowa following multiple crashes that blocked the highway for about 12 hours Saturday morning.

Multiple crashes on I-80 east of Iowa City Saturday morning shut down the interstate for several hours in both directions. No one was killed, but dozens of people were injured and taken to the hospital.

Lanes in the area will be closed in order to pull crashed cars out of the median.

“Towing and recovering efforts started right away after the storm, Sunday night after the storm and have continued each night since then and we’re estimating a couple, two to three more nights yet to get everything removed out there,” said Mitch Wood with the Iowa Department of Transportation.

DOT explains highway closure decision

The DOT did not expect conditions to be as bad as they were this weekend. Access to the highway was only limited after the crash happened.

“It started out with just a typical Iowa snowfall forecast. Nothing in that forecast, I guess, rose to that level of alarm for us to kind of forecast that we would have seen the traffic issues that we ended up seeing,” Wood said.

The DOT says preemptively closing the interstate can be done if unsafe travel can be predicted.

“What we could never really anticipate is the driving conditions changing rapidly and how drivers are going to respond to that,” Wood said.

Wood says shutting down an interstate is never a light decision.

“It’s not something that we necessarily want to do but when we make that decision, almost everytime we’re making that decision for safety reasons,” Wood said.

Cleanup of those accidents from Saturday are still underway. That typically happens in the evening, so drivers should watch for signs and lane closures when towing is happening.

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Iowa

Iowa DOT to rebuild I-35 between Huxley and Ames. When will it start?

Published

1 day ago

December 16, 2025

Press Room

Iowa DOT to rebuild I-35 between Huxley and Ames. When will it start?

Ames commuters: Now is the time to send in your feedback for proposed changes to Interstate 35.

The Iowa Department of Transportation is proposing new construction to widen I-35 between Huxley and Ames and rebuild sections of U.S. Highway 30 as part of a multi-year plan.

What’s in the Iowa DOT’s construction plan for I-35 between Huxley and Ames?

The Iowa DOT has been planning these changes for more than ten years. Around 2005, about 35,000 vehicles using I-35 south of U.S. 30. In 2024, that number’s now at approximately 47,000 vehicles — and expected to continue growing.

Some of the improvements include:

Replacing and widening I-35 bridges over U.S. 30 in Ames
Lowering U.S. 30 to improve clearance for I-35 bridges
Reconstructing ramps at the U.S. 30 interchange
Widening I-35 to 6 lanes between Huxley and the U.S. 30 interchange in Ames

How much will I-35 improvements between Ames and Huxley cost?

The cost of the project is expected to total $100 million.

When will construction start on I-35 in Story County?

Construction is expected to begin in spring 2027 and be completed by the end of 2030. The project also requires permanently closing 564th Avenue south of Ames between 280th and 290th Streets.

The public input period concludes at the end of December. You can submit questions and comments on the DOT’s website.

Lucia Cheng is a service and trending reporter at the Des Moines Register. Contact her at lcheng@gannett.com or 515-284-8132.

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