If it doesn't affect you I would leave it. The birds will, no doubt, bring it from smewhere even if you got rid of yours. An expensive and time-consuming process even *with* chems.

Just my humble opinion.

I usually only focus on eradicating poison ivy in areas where I have the potential to come into contact with it. If its near a path or in the yard area, then I am on top of it. I am severely allergic and have gotten it from my dogs before...so if my dogs were getting into it... I'd probably already be full of boils...

PI is prolific and little bits you miss will eventually fill in the gaps. I would limit myself to killing the PI where I know I would likely to be in contact with it. Everything else is a lot of work for little reward in the long run. You could clip the vines that are climbing the trees to slow down the berry production but you will risk exposure that way. Never tried the vinegar idea. You could also put on a "Hazmat" suit (or the Tyvec suits I saw in a forestry catalog) and hit it with a line trimmer in places just to slow it down but I doubt it is worth it.

I would leave the Poison Ivy except in areas where you are going to go. You're right, it is a great wildlife plant, especially the berries for birds, and you're also right in thinking that there is probably a lot of it all around you and the berries from your vines aren't going to add much to the supply of seeds that birds bring in. Even if you eradicate it completely from your land, which would be a tough task, you'd still have birds planting new ones.

I'm not sure vinegar is any more environmentally friendly than Roundup. Both are chemicals, and at least Roundup is supposed to break down to relatively harmless chemicals upon contact with soil. I am not sure the same could be said of vinegar. ROundup is probably a lot more effective than vinegar at killing the plants you want to kill and not killing nearby plants. If i was trying to eliminate Poison Ivy (and, in fact, I am at my place) I would use ROundup. It will kill Poison Ivy, although it takes several applications before you stop seeing new shoots from the roots. Cutting or digging are likely to result in you getting a rash. For me, poison ivy has become a really serious rash anytime I toush it even a little, so I don't allow any to grow on my two acres, although I wish I could allow a nice berry-bearing vine or two to remain for the birds.

The homemade foliage killers I saw are made up of 20% vinegar. That must be ordered online. Here is a link.
Joann

Here is a link that might be useful: 20% vinegar to kill vegetation

Poison ivy is a beautiful plant, I love its flowers and big leaves- they look just like Jack in the pulpit. But it IS a danger so kill it wherever YOUR going to be but leave it elsewhere. However you may be dooming the natives by leaving it intact when you move or sell the house.

Thanks for all the posts. I plan on leaving it on the steep bank as it would be hard to kill anyway without having to worry about overspray, getting it on me, etc. I certainly don't want to risk Roundup getting into the creek. It is really the only area where it is big. The rest should be easy to eradicate.

I have decided to go the Roundup route in trying to get rid of all the small plants. They seem to be popping up everywhere. The straight vinegar hasn't done much in the way of killing anything.

Blue Ridge Mountain Girl

Make sure you use the "round up" formulated for woody plants (it might even say Poison Ivy killer on the front of the label).

Poison Ivy is a native plant. I'm confused on how it "dooms the natives by leaving it intact"?

I'm not allergic and neither is my husband. I would love to have some, but I know too many people are allergic, so I have none on our property. Big difference I see is that we're in town, not rural.

Perhaps runsnwalken meant that the new owners would see the poison ivy and start spraying everything?

I am slowly beating back the poison ivy incursion in the non-wild portions of my yard without chemicals, by suiting up in plastic and removing the plants by hand. I'll never be able to eliminate it all, but I'll eventually be able to garden where I want in reasonable safety. As for the wild portions of my yard - the poison ivy and poison sumac can stay there to feed the birds. Both are native.

I wrote up a long post on removal of poison ivy here:

Here is a link that might be useful: poison ivy removal tips