Drought takes toll on eastern Nebraska oaks

By: Rich Wehmeyer

Old Wolf Oak at Ponca State Park, one of Nebraska’s oldest trees, has died. It was a bur oak living more than 380 years and had become an often-visited woodland destination for park visitors. But it’s not the only oak to die this year from stresses of natural causes.

Large areas of dead or declining mature trees at state parks are evident along Nebraska’s eastern edge. While trees are resilient and rarely succumb to a single stressor, the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission and its partners identified multiple ones leading to massive die-offs among the region’s deciduous trees...