Eastern red cedar trees are native to the Plains but have spread out of control without the natural prairie fires that kept them in check centuries ago. The trees suck up sunlight and groundwater at the expense of other native plants and turn grasslands into barren patches of dirt.

The issue has caught the attention of state lawmakers, who will convene a hearing Friday at the Capitol to brainstorm ways to keep the problem from worsening.

“Once they get established, they just spread and choke out everything,” said Sen. Dan Hughes, of Venango, who is conducting a legislative study to see what the state can do. “It can cut your available rangeland by 60 to 70 percent, but you’re still paying property taxes on those acres. It has a pretty significant economic impact.”

Hughes said the trees can take root even on well-managed land if neighbors aren’t controlling them on their property. He said he doesn’t yet know whether he’ll introduce a bill in next year’s session but will consider suggestions he receives at the hearing. Senators may also review what other states have done, Hughes said.

Eastern red cedar trees traditionally survived on steep, north-facing slopes in canyons where prairie fires couldn’t reach. Then settlers started using them as windbreaks and doused the natural wildfires that kept them from spreading too quickly.

Conservationists have dubbed it “the green glacier” that started in Texas and Oklahoma and swept north into Kansas, Nebraska, western Iowa and the Dakotas. At one point in Nebraska, the trees expanded at a pace of nearly 40,000 acres a year — an area roughly half the size of Omaha.

They also produce highly flammable needles and resin, which were partly to blame for massive wildfires that burned city-sized swaths of land in Nebraska in 2012.

The trees are a major concern to ranchers who rely on the state’s sprawling, open grasslands to feed their cattle. In rural, eastern Nebraska, some advocates say the trees could lower property values, which over time would erode the tax base needed to finance K-12 public schools.

“We’re sort of on the cusp right now,” said Jessica Herrmann, a lobbyist for the Nebraska Cattlemen. “If we can get on a handle of the management side of this, we won’t have a larger problem down the road.”

Herrmann said legislation could include tapping into existing state money to pay for more controlled burns to keep the eastern red cedar population under control. Her group also hopes to raise awareness of the pitfalls of the tree. Many farmers and ranchers still plant them for use as windbreaks.

Landowners also have to worry about the trees re-growing in areas where they were removed, said Scott Stout, a rancher in Curtis, Nebraska, and president of the Nebraska Prescribed Fire Council. The group works with local landowners on controlled fires to clear the trees and restore nutrients to the soil.

“From a landowner’s perspective, the economic value (of the trees) is absolutely zero,” Stout said. “It’s tough to make a living off of ground that the cedars have encroached.”

Other groups have voiced concerns about the trees as well, including the Nebraska Forest Service, which has warned that eastern red cedars are creeping into the Sandhills, a region of rolling, grass-covered sand dunes and open prairie.

Stout said some parts of the state have been more proactive than others in fighting the trees. In the past, he said, some state and federal agencies provided incentives for landowners to plant more eastern red cedars as windbreaks, while other programs offered aid to cover the cost of destroying them. Some agencies may still have incentives to promote the trees, he said.

“It really doesn’t make sense,” Stout said. “Ultimately, everyone needs to work together and have the same outlook, instead of having their own agendas.”

Local resident Dave Schaff told the Scottsbluff City Council that the group hopes the facility will be operated as a private-public partnership

“We’re just a group of citizens in the Scottsbluff and Gering area that are working to help make the area a better place to live,” Schaff said. “We’re business owners that recognize the need for a better quality of life. This is a project we’ve all spent a lot of time on and are passionate about.”

The first part of the project would focus on the aquatics center and is estimated to cost about $20 million, Schaff said. The facility would feature recreational and competitive pools that could accommodate all age groups, he said. The group has negotiated for 40 acres of land to be donated to the project.

The project’s $25 million second phase would involve a 5,000-seat events center, which would be able to accommodate concerts, sporting event tournaments and other events, Schaff said. The project would also include parking for about 1,200 vehicles.

“We’ve met with all the local interest groups, such as Scottsbluff Public Schools, the YMCA, the hospital and college,” Schaff said. “We’re trying to promote a regional concept that will meet everyone’s needs.”

The project is expected to take three years.

A city proposal for a half-cent sales tax increase for infrastructure would partially fund the center. Scottsbluff voters will consider the measure in November.

The state Game and Parks Commission says even though the duck population may be down from last year, it is still above the long-term averages for most duck breeds.

The commission’s Mark Vrtiska says mallards and green-winged teal ducks are both doing very well, and those are the top two breeds hunters harvest in Nebraska.

The mallard population is 17 percent higher than its historical average, and the green-winged teal is 42 percent higher than its average.

More details about the duck population are available in the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s report.

Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts announced Thursday night that Courtney Phillips’ last day as CEO will be Oct. 14. She’s leaving to become executive commissioner of the Texas Health and Human Services Commission.

Following a national search, Ricketts hired Phillips in 2015, when she was deputy secretary of the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals.

Ricketts lauded her tenure in Nebraska, saying Phillips’ leadership “brought new focus and discipline to the agency.”

Secretary of State John Gale said 104,477 valid signatures were certified by his office. The effort needed at least 84,269 to make it onto the ballot.

Additionally, organizers were required to gather signatures from at least 5 percent of the registered voters in 38 of Nebraska’s 93 counties. Gale said that margin was met in 47 counties.

“The measure will be placed on the 2018 general election ballot, barring an order from the district court handling the pending lawsuit that challenges the initiative petition,” Gale said in a written statement.

The news from Gale’s office comes as a Lancaster County District judge is weighing a decision in a lawsuit seeking to block the proposal from making it to the November ballot.

The referendum effort is being spearheaded by the group Insure the Good Life, which wants to expand Medicaid to about 90,000 more residents ages 19 to 64, who earn too much to qualify for regular Medicaid but too little to be eligible for financial assistance under the Affordable Care Act.

Many residents such as hotel, fast-food and construction workers who fall into the so-called coverage gap work in service jobs with no benefits.

Lancaster County District Judge Darla Ideus heard arguments Monday in the lawsuit brought by Sen. Lydia Brasch, of Bancroft, and former Sen. Mark Christensen, of Imperial. Their lawsuit asks the court to declare the proposal “invalid and legally insufficient.”

The lawsuit argues that the proposal violates the Nebraska Constitution by including more than one subject: broadening eligibility for the state-federal health care program and asking state officials to seek federal approval of the expansion.

Gale and the Insure the Good Life ballot campaign committee have filed motions to dismiss the lawsuit.

The judge on Monday promised a quick decision in a case.

Nebraska’s Republican-dominated Legislature has rejected six previous attempts to expand Medicaid under former President Barack Obama’s signature health care law.

Gov. Pete Ricketts and former Gov. Dave Heineman, both Republicans, opposed the expansion, arguing it would divert state money away from other priorities. Ricketts’ Democratic challenger, state Sen. Bob Krist, has said he supports the ballot initiative.

The ballot initiative was heavily financed by the Fairness Project, a Washington-based group that played a pivotal role in the 2017 vote to expand Medicaid in Maine. In addition to the Nebraska campaign, the group is working this year on Medicaid expansion ballot measures in Idaho, Montana and Utah.

Fairness Project Executive Director Jonathan Schleifer lauded Friday’s news of the petition effort in Nebraska and expressed hope that the lawsuit to stop it would fail.

“We are used to our opponents filing frivolous lawsuits because they know they can’t win at the ballot box,” Schleifer said. “The secretary of state is right — this lawsuit should be dismissed so that Nebraskans can have their say.”

Roughly 11 million people nationally have gotten coverage through the expansion of Medicaid.

The Nebraska measure would require state officials to submit a coverage plan to the federal government to insure certain residents who make less than 138 percent of the federal poverty level — about $16,750 a year. The federal government would then have to approve the plan.

The illnesses reported earlier this year are linked to the cyclospora parasite, which can cause diarrhea, intestinal pain, nausea or fatigue. The Food and Drug Administration said Friday that 507 cases have been confirmed in 15 states and New York City.

McDonald’s stopped the sale of salads at 3,000 restaurants last month until it could find a different supplier. The FDA says it’s still investigating the supplier of romaine lettuce and carrots.

States with cases include: Iowa, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, South Dakota and Wisconsin. Officials also said people sickened in Connecticut, Florida, New York City, Tennessee, and Virginia had traveled in Illinois and Kentucky.