This technique is under experimental development. The emphasis of our organization isn’t on removing ground ivy at the moment, so experiments with the roll haven’t been done for a long time. Time trials and other considerations may indicate that other techniques are better.

 

For mono-cultures of ground ivy, however, it is abundantly clear that the roll is more efficient than “weeding ivy” in the sense that it can clear all the ivy out of an area in a shorter amount of time. Here, “weeding ivy” means having separate individuals haphazardly remove mono-cultures of ivy without coordination with each other.

 

Weeding ivy is the preferred method for more sporadic ivy that is spread out among native plants.

 

GENERAL IDEA

 

A thick mat of ground ivy along with its roots is rolled into a bale.

 

One or more persons—called “balers”—will pull the ivy towards them, rolling the ivy into a bale.

 

One or more persons—called “shovelers”—will be on the other side of the ivy roll, using short-handled shovels or pitchforks to dig up the dirt the ivy roots are in.

 

The balers pull the ivy back so dirt and ivy roots are exposed, allowing the shoveler to more effectively dig under the ivy.

 

The shoveler loosens the dirt the ivy roots are in so that the roots are more easily pulled out by the balers.

 

The balers shake the ivy so that dirt and duff fall out of the roll. The shovelers hit and stab the bale with their shovels to make dirt and duff fall out.

 

Most duff is beneficial for the native habitat. For this reason, and also to reduce the weight of ivy waste, it is beneficial to remove duff from the bale. If ivy waste is going to be mulched, it may be less likely to survive if less duff is with it. That said, removing all of the duff is not the most effective use of time.

 

After the bale has been separated from the ground, manageable portions are picked up and shaken vigorously to remove as much dirt/duff as possible.

 

PLANNING THE ROLL

 

The roll should be used where the ivy mat makes up a large proportion of the volume of plants on the ground. What that minimum proportion should be is unclear, but it almost certainly is more than two-thirds, and may be as high as 95 percent. All other plants will be uprooted by this method.

 

Another consideration is which species of native plants are destroyed by the roll. All else being equal, native plants that are rarer and more fragile have a higher value than those that are everywhere and fast growing.

 

Patches of native plants can be avoided by ending the roll before the patch and using a more discriminating method of ivy removal for where ivy coexists with natives. Another strategy is to wait for times of year when only ivy is growing and the native plants are all under the soil.

 

Note that criticizing the roll categorically because it damages native plants is inane, as large patches with 100% ivy are common.

 

The roll is generally inappropriate for steep slopes, as it will probably cause erosion. An exception to this rule is if an anti-erosion plan is implemented immediately after the roll.

 

The roll is especially effective going down slopes. Some voice concern that going downhill is dangerous, so assessing the abilities of the crew is advisable.

 

STARTING THE ROLL

 

Remove logs and other objects. Ivy winds around everything, making the roll harder. You can put the logs back after the roll is completed.

 

Look for natural breakpoints in the ivy for where to start and end the bale. Ending where a foot path starts is often good.

 

The scale of the bale should reflect the number of workers present. The natural breakpoints selected determine the scale of the roll.

 

If on a hill, roll downward.

 

Starting the roll is difficult. In the beginning, the efficacy of the roll isn’t obvious. Perhaps have the shoveler(s) start the roll without the balers for 10 minutes. The roll isn’t big enough to be pulled by balers before that time.

 

MISTAKES TO AVOID

 

The balers should only pull ivy roots from dirt that has been dislodged by the shoveler. The balers should not try and pull ivy roots out of the ground.

WHY: Roots will often break off instead of being removed from the ground if the dirt hasn’t been dislodged. Second, the balers should conserve their energy so they can work longer/harder.

 

The balers should not pull apart the bale. Keep the bale in one piece until the end.

WHY: As the bale gets bigger, it pulls more and more ivy roots out of the ground. Prematurely pulling the bale apart reduces this efficiency.

 

The roll should be done in a straight line and advance fairly uniformly. Avoid bulges in the line.

WHY: The more of a bend in the line there is, the more the ivy that is left behind inhibits the ability of the workers to rip out the ivy that is further forward.

 

If the bale-line moves past a new area of ivy to its side, the line should be extended into that new area.

WHY: Similar to the above, the vines and roots in that new abutting area will inhibit the progress of the line.

 

Clipping ivy should generally be avoided. The bale should start where ivy starts and end where it ends. Ivy roots especially should not be clipped.

WHY: Clipping ivy is itself time consuming, so there is an opportunity cost. Next, clipping ivy reduces the ability to pull up ivy. If an ivy vine is cut in two, pulling at one piece will no longer pull out the other.

Clipping ivy is sometimes necessary if time constraints mean that the originally conceived operation can’t be completed before work is done or if the workers present are simply physically unable to move the mass of ivy that results.

Returning to a bale on a future day is an alternative to inefficiently clipping off the bale.

Roots should not be clipped, because clipping them makes them harder to keep track of, and thus pull out. More problematically, failure to keep track of which roots are ivy roots may cause non-native plant roots to be ripped out.

 

The shoveler should dig deep enough so that all ivy roots are removed.

WHY: It is very easy to leave behind ivy roots and they often keep growing ivy.

 

Avoid including tree roots in the bale.

WHY: Obviously, hurting the tree roots of native plants is bad for the forest. It also makes baling harder, as the tree roots are essentially endless. That said, some tree roots are inevitably going to get damaged. Try and remove these roots from the bale and put them back into the cleared area. If that is too onerous, sever them from the ground to best allow the roll to continue.

 

Workers should not “leap-frog” around each other on the line.

WHY: This is a waste of time and effort.

 

Don’t be overly concerned with hurting native plants.

WHY: The level of appropriate concern for damaging native plants while removing invasives is a grey-area. However, it must be recognized that slowing down to preserve native plants is associated with a hefty opportunity cost.

Generally, many damaged native plants will grow back. Native plant rhizomes often exist beneath the shallow ivy root systems, and spring back to life once the ivy is gone.

Keep in mind that the time it takes to pull out a given amount of ivy will be greater the more care is taken to preserve native plants in the patch being worked on. This directly translates into less ivy being removed, which in turn is harmful to native plants. There is an optimal level of balance between removing more ivy and preserving the native plants that coexist with them. There is currently no clear answer to what that level is.

There are exceptions. Some native plants are more important than others to preserve. For example, in Humboldt County, CA, trilliums take a long time to grow and are much more fragile than many other plants.

Plans to replant after removing ivy make the trade-off even more favorable. There is, obviously, an opportunity cost associated with more replanting, however.

 

Shovelers and perhaps balers should wear face masks.

WHY: the duff and dirt will go up their noses and cause congestion and inflammation.

 

Shovelers should wear knee pads.

WHY: shoveling on one’s knees is much easier than standing. Kneeling with knee pads protects one’s knees.

 

Short handled shovels should have their steps/treadles cut off. A shovel’s “step” is the portion of metal that the foot applies force to.

WHY: If the step isn’t cut off, it will get caught on the ivy when shoveling into the earth under the bale.

 

ADVANTAGES OF THE IVY ROLL

 

The ivy roll uses the strengths of the ivy against itself. It takes advantage of the fact that the ivy roots are entwined with each other to remove them from the ground.

 

The ivy roll enables most of the ivy roots to be taken out, thus reducing the follow up work that is necessary.

 

If one person were digging up the ivy roots, they would probably have to dig up more ground, in comparison to the roll, to get all the roots. With the roll, a baler is pulling the bale towards them, thus exposing ivy roots, raising them a bit. The shoveler then sees these roots, and frees them from the soil with a shovel as they are being pulled. The roots are pulled out without having to dig out all the soil around them. The roots are pulled until they get stuck, and then they are freed by the shoveler, in an iterative process. This both reduces disruption of the soil and conserves the energy of the workers.

 

If one person is working alone, the roots of other ivy plants prevent the roots of a currently worked on ivy plant to be pulled out, because they are entwined. But multiple people working simultaneously enables all of the roots to be pulled out at the same time.

 

PROBLEMS WITH THE IVY ROLL

 

Digging deeply into the soil will compact the soil, which prevents absorption of water and makes it harder for plants to grow. Disrupting the soil may also disrupt beneficial funguses and lichens (???).

 

Disrupting soil may cause more invasive plants to propagate, as invasives thrive in disruptive soil.

 

It kills more native plants.

 

It may be inefficient if it is unnecessary to remove all ivy roots to kill the ivy.

REPLY: this may be true. Experiments should be done to assess what is necessary to kill ground ivy.

 

It is physically demanding and may injure people with back problems or other physical ailments.

REPLY: building inefficiency into a technique to protect the well-being of people is not advisable. Instead, keep utilizing a particular technique, but figure out how to do it in a way that doesn’t harm workers. One obvious way to do this is by taking frequent breaks and switching people out. Even with the breaks, the technique can still be more effective than weeding ivy.

Another reason that volunteers complain about the roll is because they are making it harder than it should be. They strain far too much, especially if they are balers. They pull at the bale, attempting to pull roots out of the ground when those roots haven’t been loosened yet by the shovelers. To prevent physical, emotional, maybe even spiritual injuries, this technique requires clear leadership and good group coordination.

 

ALTERATIONS TO THE ROLL

 

It has been suggested that a pitch-fork would be better than a shovel for the roll, and this is probably correct. Future experimentation will assess this. It seems like a pitch-fork would disrupt the soil less, but it may not be as good at getting the roots out.

 

Some type of long-handled rake with long prongs might be better for baling than doing it by hand.

 

Some type of pully system that is attached to rake-like wooden pieces may be better for baling, or may assist with baling, than just doing it all by hand.

 

ALTERNATIVES TO THE ROLL

 

This is a brief listing of alternates for how thick ground ivy mats might be removed.

 

“Weeding”: Instead of making a bale, individual ivy vines are pulled. Best case scenario is that workers use a trowel to dig up roots but they often are simply using their hands to do so. Next, because they are working individually, it is difficult to monitor what they’re doing.

 

Surface Cut: All ivy above the surface is removed via manual labor, but roots aren’t.

 

Lawnmower: All ivy above the surface is removed via lawn mowers or some type of light cutting machinery. Roots are left alone.

 

Backhoe: Heavy machinery of some type is used to remove ivy. This of course would be more destructive to native plants, and would be costly financially. It would save a substantial amount of time compared to other methods.

 

Solar Cooking: A black tarp is placed over the ivy for many months and the ivy is killed via heat and lack of access to sunlight.

 

Poison: Poison is applied. The waxy coating of ivy makes it less susceptible to herbicide than other plants.

 

Video on youtube of ivy roll