Years of drought conditions in the Midwest and Great Plains have opened the door for pests and diseases that are killing trees. Now people working in parks and forests are planting new species they hope can survive the changing conditions.

At the northern edge of Eugene T. Mahoney State Park in eastern Nebraska lies a graveyard of dead trees. Many of the remaining nearby oaks are bare with silver crusty patches wrapping like a grip around trunks and branches.

Noah Sundberg, a Nebraska Game and Parks horticulturist who’s cared for Mahoney Park’s trees for several years, first noticed the dieback among these bur oaks in 2023.

“It brought some concern, but we weren't sure what was going on,” Sundberg said. “We thought the oaks could pull out of it.”

The trees’ quickly declining appearance

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