There's vines all over my tree — what should I do?

A mat of dark green leaves climbing the trunk, gripping the bark directly with short hairy rootlets. In the case that actually matters, the vine reaches the canopy and spreads sideways through the branches, so a green trunk turns into a green crown. Bark hidden from the ground up. In winter the vine stays green while the tree is bare, which is the easiest time of year to see how far up it got. A hairy ropy vine with leaves in threes is poison ivy — a different problem and a crew-safety issue. Climbing ivy is not a parasite. It does not tap into the tree or feed on it, and light growth on a lower trunk is close to harmless. Three real problems arrive later: the vine adds substantial weight and a great deal of wind-catching surface high in a crown that never evolved to carry it; it shades out the tree's own foliage once it spreads through the canopy; and — the one arborists care about most — it hides the trunk, so nobody can see a crack, a cavity, a conk, or an old wound underneath. A tree in a full ivy jacket cannot be properly inspected.