Work Accomplished

This page showcases the surprising extent of ivy infestations and the work we’ve done to eradicate them. One common aspect of these infestations is the prolific berry production.

Berries

Fruiting Ivy on 3 Trees
at Eureka High

On March 14, 2024 these massive infestations of ivy on three trees were girdled and many roots were removed. This only took three hours and six minutes of work. If roots were ignored, this could be done much faster. If we assume at least one thousand pounds of ivy in each tree, that means a minimum of 3,000 pounds of ivy was killed.

Lots of Berries

Tree#1 Before
& After

Angle 1

Angle 2

Angle 3

Angle 4

Angle 5

Angle 6

Tree#2 Before
& After

Angle 1

Angle 2

Angle 3

Angle 4

Angle 5

Tree#3 Before
& After

Angle 1

Angle 2

Angle 3

Fruiting Ivy on Fence
at Eureka High

Zoom in,
if you dare

The fence inundated with berries was 200 feet long, with another 50 feet of fence running down the hill with many fewer berries on it. With two feet of ivy bushing out at the top, the fence was 10.33 feet tall, and the depth of the ivy was approximately three feet on average. This comes to a total volume of 6,200 cubic feet. Given that we estimated there were 6,593.4 berries in a 250 cubic foot space, we estimate there were 163,516 berries on the fence.

This fence is about to be removed because of the planned remodeling of the EHS athletic area. However, we prevented an entire year of berries from being dispersed.

Last Year's Berries

Not a single berry escaped the rath of RIPE

A Better Look at Those Berries

Ivy Lianas Can Become Ivy Trees

Before & After

The After After Video

Across the Creek
(Don't worry, we got it too)

Fruiting Ivy on Deadfall
on Ryan Creek

Moderately Sized Tree Being Engulfed

Midway in the process: the leaves have been stripped and you can see the structure of the lianas

Sad Wilting Ivy

Fruiting Ivy on Bleachers
at Eureka High

Before

After

This ivy has been separated from it's roots and will die. We left it on the wall because it was french-braided with rebar.

All of the ivy we pulled down would have died anyway, but we were concerned that our efforts wouldn’t be appreciated if we left ugly dried out ivy in plain view of the track and bleachers.

We sawed

We snipped until we could snip no more

Then, we yanked

Fruiting Ivy on Deadfall
along Walnut St. in Cutten

One day, on our way home, we were shocked to find a wall of fruiting ivy right in our very neighborhood. Once we got a better look at what was going on, we were appalled and darkly fascinated by the latticing structure of the main ivy lianas. These appeared to have been a series of deadfalls; the trees died, but the ivy continued to thrive. For some, the tree is completely rotted away, leaving only a tube shape in the ivy lattice where it used to be.