Will Drews, Natural Resources Specialist of the Knox County Soil & Water Conservation District, points out old Wintercreeper (Eyonymus fortunei) roots and talks about ways to stop the spread of the invasive plant during a nature walk on the Rotary Nature Trail at North Park in Evansville, Friday, Aug. 6, 2021. Staff photo by Sam Owens
For a demo
Property owners interested in a demonstration of how to control wintercreeper and other invasive vines can contact Vanderburgh County CISMA by email at vanderburgh.cisma@gmail.com.
EVANSVILLE — What once were considered ornamental landscape plants are increasingly posing a threat to mature trees in Vanderburgh County.
A local volunteer group has started a Save Our Trees campaign to bring public awareness to the problems vines such as wintercreeper and English ivy create when they are allowed to grow out of control.
The volunteers are part of the Vanderburgh County Invasives Management Area, a cooperative effort dedicated to combatting the spreading problem of invasive plant species.
Volunteer Steve Heeger said there has been an "alarming increase" of vines overtaking mature trees in recent years.
He said he recalled how when the North Woods trails were developed next to the city's Lloyd Pool on North First Avenue in 2003, the woods there were nearly free of invasive undergrowth or vines.
In the time since, however, the woods became overtaken with vines and shrubs, especially wintercreeper.
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Wintercreeper is an aggressively growing, woody vine first introduced to North America from Asia as an ornamental landscape plant. On the ground, it spreads as dense groundcover.
However, when it grows vertically, wintercreeper's vines climb trees and buildings as high as 70-feet, producing clusters of red berries in the fall and seeds that are quickly spread by birds and animals over wide areas.
It took hours of volunteer work for the woods to regain their original appearance, Heeger said.
In the process, the volunteers have learned how to remove wintercreeper and other invasive vines before they kill or damage trees, and are hoping to share that information citywide.
"Unfortunately, a lot of homeowners think these vines are an attractive landscaping feature," Heeger said.
Controlling it often means cutting it by hand and applying a mixture with the herbicide glyphosate to the cut stems, Heeger said.
Shawn Dickerson, Evansville's city arborist, said vines like wintercreeper can damage trees in several ways.
"They compete with the tree's canopy for sunlight, and they add weight to the canopy of trees, creating more stress," he said. "That can lead to wind damage."
It also makes his job more difficult, Dickerson said.
"If you let it get out of control, it can mask problems that might otherwise be noticed and fixed before it's too late. I can't do that if I can't see where the problem is because of the vines," he said.
Vines left too long in larger mature trees can even start to take root in the soil created by decomposing leaves and organic matter trapped high up in a tree's nooks and crannies, Dickerson said. That can make it even harder to kill off the vine.
When vines overtake trees it also can create an unkempt look that detracts from a property's appearance and value, he said.
The vines not only overtake trees when given the chance, but also buildings, lattice and fences.
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