English ivy on trees: how to remove it without hurting the tree

This page covers ivy on trees. The site’s brush clearing guide for Washington and Oregon covers ivy alongside blackberry, Scotch broom and holly, and the land clearing hub covers bigger jobs, where ivy carpets a whole slope or woodlot.

The vines get big. King County’s weed program says older ivy vines can be tree-like and as much as five inches thick, and the Oregon Department of Agriculture (ODA) describes thick, woody, evergreen vines on trees with long trailing stems across the forest floor. Starlings and robins eat the berries and spread the seed, ODA says.

Does ivy kill trees?

It can, but not by feeding on them. King County says ivy grows only from roots in the soil and gets no nutrients from the trunk; the small rootlets it climbs with give off a glue-like substance and, in the county’s words, “don’t absorb nutrients or water.” The harm comes from what the vines add to a tree and what they cover.

So the order matters: get the ivy off the trunk first, then look at the tree. If the green on your bark is moss or lichen rather than ivy, that is a different question, covered in moss and lichen on trees.

Is English ivy invasive in Washington and Oregon?

Both states treat it as a noxious weed, and both ban its sale.

Sources: Washington State Noxious Weed Control Board; King County Noxious Weed Control Program; chapter 16-752 WAC and WSR 25-15-040; ODA Noxious Weed Policy and Classification (2025); OAR 603-052-1200; all checked 2026-10-02.

The Washington part is new. A rule filed July 9, 2025 (WSR 25-15-040) added common English ivy and Atlantic ivy, as whole species, to the state’s noxious weed seed and plant quarantine, effective August 9, 2025; the weed board and King County pages still describe the Class C listing by the four cultivars. King County says the common ivy in the region is those cultivars, so you don’t need to name the cultivar to know the ivy on your tree is a listed weed.

How to remove ivy from trees: the survival ring

King County calls it the tree ring; the King Conservation District, whose guide the county links to, calls it a survival ring; the Washington weed board describes the same cut. It saves the tree without anyone pulling vines out of the crown: cut the vines off from their roots and the upper vines die on the tree.

1. Cut every vine at waist to chest heightAll the way around the trunk, thick vines included (King County; weed board). Hand pruners and loppers handle most stems; old vines can be several inches thick.
2. Pry off the vines below the cutWork them loose without tearing the bark; King County’s BMP suggests a stout screwdriver or pry bar.
3. Clear the ground ringPull ivy from at least 3 to 6 feet of ground around the trunk (King County); the King Conservation District says 5 to 10 feet. King County’s BMP says six feet should keep ivy from climbing back up for at least a year.
4. Mulch the ringKing County’s last step once the ground is clear.
5. Leave the top aloneThe vines above the cut die once they are cut off from their roots (weed board; King County). The King Conservation District advises against pulling ivy off a tree, which can damage the tree and bring down hazardous debris.
6. Check the trunkLook for new shoots several times a year (King County BMP).

Safety: Do the work from the ground, and leave dead vines in a tall crown to a climber. If the tree is near a power line, stay out of it: in both states, tree work within 10 feet of a line is for utility or line-clearance crews (WAC 296-45-035; OAR 437-002-0306).

How to remove ground ivy and get rid of the cuttings

The ring only holds if the ivy on the ground stays back. King County says pulling or digging out ivy with its roots works best from fall to spring, when the ground is moist and the soil is easier to work, and the weed board agrees that moist soil makes pulling easier. For a big mat, King County’s BMP describes rolling it: cut a line across the top of the mat, then lift the cut edge and roll the ivy back over itself like a carpet.

On a slope, take it in sections. King County warns that stripping ivy off a slope all at once can cause erosion, recommends erosion control fabric and new native plants in its place, and notes that mulch is not an option on steep slopes where it can wash away.

That is Washington guidance, and Washington’s quarantine exempts hauling for disposal. Oregon’s quarantine rule lists transport among its prohibitions and its text has no disposal exception, so in Oregon ask your hauler or county weed program how they want ivy delivered.

How long until the ivy is gone?

Expect years of light work, not one weekend. King County’s BMP says annual monitoring and removal are needed to keep ivy from growing back up trees, and it cites research in which manual removal cut ivy cover dramatically in a single year:

Source: King County Noxious Weed Control Program, common ivy BMP (November 2020), citing a 2005 Nature Conservancy study (Stoll); checked 2026-10-02.

The ring also stops the seed supply. ODA notes that ivy flowers where light and nutrients are best, as in forest canopies, and King County describes the flowering form as the mature growth with unlobed leaves; the weed board says a plant can produce thousands of fruits a year and about 70 percent of ivy seeds are viable. Cutting the climbing vines ends that supply from your tree. After the ring is clear, mulch it, plant natives where the ground ivy came out, and walk the trees each fall and spring.

When the tree itself needs checking

Once the ivy is off, look at what it was hiding. The ISA’s checklist asks about large dead branches, hanging branches, cracks or splits in the trunk, cavities or rotten wood, loose bark and mushrooms at the base, and says a “yes” to any of them means the tree should be examined by an ISA Certified Arborist. Alabama Extension’s hazard tree guide adds that internal decay is not always obvious from outside.

Three situations call for a professional rather than a pair of loppers: a tall tree whose crown is still heavy with dead ivy going into storm season, since that weight is what King County ties to blow-overs; a tree that has started to lean (see leaning tree); and any tree that could hit the house. A tree risk assessment answers whether the tree can stay, and an arborist can take dead vines and dead wood out of the crown.

Where the ivy carpets a whole hillside or woodlot, the ground work is part of land clearing, and other weeds usually come with it: Himalayan blackberry along the edges and Scotch broom in the sunny gaps.