Santa, Christmas tree growers weigh in on Kansas climate during annual Christmas tradition – Kansas Reflector

CEDAR CREST — Heavy is the top that wears the Kansas Christmas Tree Growers Affiliation presidency. 

David Wilderson mentioned he feels a whole lot of satisfaction in his first 12 months on the helm of the affiliation, representing Christmas tree growers throughout the state on the annual welcoming of the Christmas tree to the governor’s mansion. Yearly, horses ship a Christmas tree and provides Santa a experience at Cedar Crest, about 5 miles west of the Statehouse in Topeka. 

However a Kansas drought may threaten the way forward for this custom, inflicting Christmas tree crops to die off at unusually excessive charges. 

Christmas tree seedlings sometimes have a 70-80% survival fee, however this 12 months growers are seeing a lack of about 50% of their seedlings, Wilderson mentioned.

“The survival fee has decreased due to the droughts,” he mentioned. “This 12 months particularly, I talked to a whole lot of the growers in our group. We had a a lot decrease survival fee of the seedlings we planted this 12 months.”

Wilderson mentioned that drought and a number of other dry summers have compelled growers to search out new approaches to maintain bushes wholesome. Some have switched to completely different bushes, transferring away from white pine and attempting new irrigation strategies. He and different growers have been speaking with Kansas forestry officers to navigate the issue. 

Wilderson has operated his 4,000 tree farm, Wilderson Tree Farm in Basehor, since 1976 and mentioned he believes drought will proceed to be an issue. He mentioned growers might want to adapt to the brand new actuality.

The governor’s tree this 12 months is a Virginia pine, which might tolerate decrease soil moisture than another pine bushes. 

“Now we have to react and take a look at completely different sorts of bushes and assume we’ve to irrigate extra,” Wilderson mentioned. 

On the Christmas tree occasion, Wilderson wasn’t the one one attempting new issues. 

Santa, of St. Nick Companies, mentioned he’s been providing completely different candy treats alongside the standard sweet canes. Gentle-chew sweet is best for individuals’s enamel, he mentioned. 

“We’re attempting to be somewhat more healthy,” Santa mentioned. 

Santa, who has been a part of the state’s Santa scene for the final 12 or so years, claims to have gotten into the enterprise when elves “grabbed him.”

Kansas Reflector couldn’t confirm this.

He assured the Reflector that Kansans had been particularly good this 12 months and will sit up for extra cookies, toys and candies than coal come Christmas morning. 

Exterior the governor’s mansion, Bess and Betty, the two,000-pound draft horses who pull the tree wagon each different 12 months, stood calmly.

Robert Carter, who runs 3C Carriage Service together with his father, Cecil, mentioned the horses had been usually higher behaved than individuals. 

“They know the way to act greater than the individuals know the way to act,” he mentioned. 

Carter mentioned they moved to Kansas and began the enterprise after his father retired from the army. The 2 have at all times been round horses and cattle and revel in sharing their experiences with the general public, collaborating within the annual tree welcoming for about 10 years. 

One courtesy they make use of are what Carter name “diaper baggage” for the horses, which acquire droppings. Carter mentioned they’ve used this methodology for years for decorum on the governor’s mansions and different occasions, comparable to weddings. 

“It’s one thing we do as a courtesy, so we’re not leaving a multitude in entrance of the governor’s mansion,” Carter mentioned. 

Lt. Gov. David Toland, who welcomed the tree rather than Gov. Laura Kelly, mentioned all he needed for Christmas was one other 12 months of financial progress in Kansas. 

“I need one other 12 months of financial progress in 2023 like we had in 2022,” Toland mentioned.