TRR photo by Sandy Long Winterberry can be easily spotted in the winter regional landscape. Its brilliant red berries seem to decorate the woodlands with splashes of festive color.

A winterberry wonderland

When Honesdale’s Dick Smith co-composed the now-beloved holiday song, “Winter Wonderland,” he probably wasn’t thinking about American winterberry. But this bush with its blazing red berries lends considerable beauty to the winter landscape throughout the Upper Delaware region.

Ilex verticillata is a native species of holly that punctuates the natural scenery with brilliant bursts of fire-engine red berries at a time when most color has been drained from the landscape. It is a deciduous shrub whose berries are made all the more prominent when its leaves cascade to the forest floor in autumn.

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Byway grants will help ward off knotweed, create signage

NARROWSBURG, NY—The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) has awarded the Upper Delaware Scenic Byway, Inc. (UDSB) a $12,400 grant to undertake an Invasive Plant Species Educational Campaign and Interpretive Signage Project.

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Raptors in winter

MATAMORAS, PA—The Gifford Pinchot Audubon Society’s past president Peter Wulfhorst will lead a field trip to Pine Island and the Liberty Loop Trail of the Wallkill River Wildlife Refuge on Sunday, January 6, 2008. Participants will meet at 2:00 p.m. at the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation Welcome Center off Route 209 near Matamoras and car pool to the refuge.

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Also in this issue:

• Hunters can apply for second spring gobbler license