It is horribly invasive. The bush type that Bon mentioned get tree-sized along fencerows that aren't maintained by their owners. I hate it. We leave it alone deep in the woods where we rarely venture since some wildlife eat the berries, but kill it when it tries to creep out of the woods and into the garden which sits about 8' south of our woodland's edge. In a dry year it just holds its own and sits there. In a wet year it tries to spread very aggressively and we have to tackle it repeatedly. I had a friend who once became very ill from inhaling the smoke from a burning brush pile that contained poison ivy vines. Apparently the poison ivy oil spores traveled on the air and got into her lungs, giving her an internal case of poison ivy. She also had it all over her body at the same time. That was about as sick as I've ever seen anybody get from poison ivy. Only you can decide if you want to remove it or let it be. Sometimes I think people have more trouble removing it than just leaving it alone---if it is far enough away from the house that they can leave it alone. I have a friend who is so allergic to it that she practically breaks out in a rash if she just looks at poison ivy. I am glad no one in your family appears to be that sensitive to the poison ivy. We have poison ivy vines climbing tree trunks in our woodland where the vines are as big around as my wrist. There's no way I am venturing into the woodland to try to pull down, cut down or otherwise remove poison ivy that size. It can stay there forever as far as I am concerned.

I just want to give an update on my poison ivy. After due deliberation and much consideration I decided I could carefully target just the poison ivy leaves with an Ortho poison ivy killer without it getting into the ground. I began with a small area first and waited to see what would happen. At first I thought perhaps it had no effect at all, but then a few weeks later I noticed that tiny patch I'd sprayed was brown and dead. So I sprayed the rest. It took a lot of patience and a couple of rounds to get it all and is a slow process just as daninthedirt said, but it looks as though it has finally succeeded! So my next step will be removing that patch of dirt and hopefully removing any roots with it and then bring in some fresh dirt. I figure that's the best way to assure I'm removing as much poison residue in the soil as possible. I'll wait awhile before doing this step to give the poison a chance to complete its job on that root system. I, of course did these courses of poison during long stretches of dry weather so it didn't wash off the leaves. Next time this problem arises I'm going to try the vinegar recipe method for comparison. Thanks for all the help and good advice!

If you sprayed the poison ivy and the leaves died, the roots should be dead as well. New plants can come in via bird poop (they love the berries!). I would not plant english ivy there. If you thought the poison ivy was hard to get rid of, you obviously haven't tried to get rid of established english ivy (plus it is considered an exotic invasive in some areas). The best way to manage new poison ivy sprouts is to have a fairly open area so you can see when new plants sprout and then just pluck them out (wearing gloves with with a plastic bag over your hand). I would not plant a dense ground cover. Consider a nice mix of low growing shrubs or small trees to help hold the soil (prevent erosion since it is a hill). You would really have tons of choices. Best time to plant anything would be the fall so that you don't have to hover over it with a hose all summer. You could cover the area with mulch/pine straw in the meantime to keep it looking tidy.

nywoodsman's worldview is such because he has never experienced poison ivy like the rest of us! My wife and I are very allergic to p.I. But she is more allergic than I. We went to Disney World one year and they wouldn't let us in to a tour group because they thought she had a highly contagious skin disease (like eczema) on her face!! We had an abundance of it growing in a shrub we wanted to keep. I trimmed the shrub but avoided p.I. like the plague!! But it got so bad growing out of control each year that this year I had to do something. I obtained SYRVET's OB Veterinary Gloves which go all the way up to the shoulders (you can get them on Amazon). I had my wife tape them to my shoulders--however, you have to tape them across the back of the shirt, from top of glove to top of glove because the sweat will cause the tape to come loose and the glove will descend down to near the wrists. Not good!! After I finished working, I had my wife carefully pull the long gloves inside-out and we placed them in a plastic bag for disposal. She had to wash right away but did not get any rash. Once the gloves were off and disposed of, I immediately used Technu on my hands and wrists by rubbing them for several minutes. Then I used a liquid soap on that and washed my hands and wrists off. I followed that with a shower. Don't think that wearing an old pair of pants will protect you completely! Some of the urushiol oil penetrated the cloth and I got a rash on my thigh. I treated it with Technu soap regularly for several days. That did not get rid of the rash but it did lessen the severity of the itch. Some may be interested In knowing that Technu also makes something called "Tecnu Corticool" which is a hydrocortisone that gives you relief from the itch. But you will have to apply it again after awhile. This cream comes in a 1.5 oz tube and can also be gotten on Amazon. Hope this helps