vine trouble

It chokes a tree by climbing and then completely covering it.
Locals have told me it’s a kind of grape vine, but I call it Michigan Kudzu.

I’ve worked about 4 days in late summer sun, walking in the woods and lakeside to hack and cut and pull the vine out of the trees. My legs and arms have the inset bites and cuts and scrapes to prove it.

In the 10 or more years it’s had to grow freely here at my parents’ house, it killed 2 trees and was working on a number of others, including one of the 40+ year old pines.

Here’s a picture of ONE OF the piles I cut and eventually dragged and pulled from the woods and lakeside trees.
The plant was cut into pieces and used as kindle in the bonfire we used to make s’mores. Talk about happy endings!