Garden Pests and Diseases: Is this smooth bark disease on my oak tree?, 1 by vossner

vossner wrote:
this is what the trunk looks like. In fact, two trees are displaying this condition. They are within 1 ft of each other, and I don't doubt the roots of both trees are interconnected. When we were clearing the property, these trees were overridden with vines. The trees improved a little after they were vine-free, but they are generally declining and on windy days we have a lot of broken branches falling.