Excellent analysis!
In the SW United States and Texas, the drought is killing off many hardwood trees, such as oaks, furnishing plenty of wood to burn. Many 400-hundred dead live oaks are evident across the Texas Hill Country due to a fungus and perhaps weakended by by long term drought. Mnay ranchers would welcome a market for there dead live oak trees.

I think most of the trees you mention are victims of oak wilt. The live oaks of the Texas Hill Country have lived through droughts in the past.

One of the features which helps them weather drought, interconnected root systems, has the unfortunate side effect of being an infection route for the oak wilt fungus.