[gerdesj]

I'm not sure you are describing ivy which generally tries to parasitize other plants/trees and is quite slow growing. It will also climb up walls and spread.

I've never seen acres of the stuff. It is not a ground spreader type plant, ie it won't run across your lawn or field. It will run along fences and hedges but it does not run into open ground.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hedera_helix is classified as a weed in the US and elsewhere quite rightly because it is non-native. It is not a fast spreader at all.

You can peel it off walls and pull roots relatively easily. You can simply cut it in several places and it will die off. You can also paint or spray the leaves with something nasty from Monsanto if killing everything is your bag but it isn't mine.

[tsomctl]

English ivy is a ground spreader, at least where I live. It won't grow on the ground if it gets a lot of sun, but ground shaded by trees will turn into a thick mat that is impossible to pull up. Some yards have it growing as a ground cover in the flower beds. You can't pull it off walls or the ground easily. It grows tendrils (roots?) into anything porous, which makes it extremely difficult to pull up. If it's growing on the ground, it's just a thick mat that is impossible to pull up. And while I wouldn't call it a fast spreader, if you ignore it for a couple of years, it will start to take over.

Source: I used to work for a yard company, and I have it in my own yard.

[jgwil2]

English ivy may be slow growing in your region but it is definitely an invasive, ground-spreading pest in other places. Where I live it's not uncommon at all to see large swaths of wooded parkland covered in it.

[gerdesj]

I live in SW England (ie quite warm n wet which is ideal for this stuff) and it really doesn't compare in the invasive stakes. We've just had a rather warm autumn and winter is a bit shag too and ivy is not close to the top of the weeds list at all.

Shallow roots means easy removal. Ivy isn't actually that pernicious either it seems. I own a company and on our land there are three whopping oaks and there is quite a lot of ivy:

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@50.9470006,-2.6381093,3a,75y,...

The above link shows a bewildering amount of tree and undergrowth but there are three really large oaks in there and I will preserve all of that lot. It's in a town and a loosely coupled island for a lot of wildlife - it's quite a bit larger than it looks. The oaks are around 200 to 250 years old judging by girth. There's also the remains of some Alms houses to the left of the view, roughly to the right of the pedestrian.

If you look closely there is a lot of ivy there! Also two of the oaks have a lot of ivy cover and I was worried that it might weaken them. But:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hedera_helix

links to:

https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/trees-woods-and-wildlife/pl...

and we get the assertion: "but it doesn’t harm the tree at all". I'm not totally convinced but I do have access to experts on this (SSDC int al.) so I'll take their advice.