Haven't done salal, but I've been succcessful against kudzu & blackberries.
For a hardy native plant that spreads underground like salal, I would think digging would be a tough way to go. Try roughly cutting them short & painting on a herbicide directly to the plant, that way it's very targeted & doesn't get spread around so much.
If you use a Roundup-type, make sure to leave a fair amount of green leaves on the plant, because that's the only place it will be taken up by the plant. Also make sure to do it right now ASAP. The later you wait in the year, the less the plant is taking up from the leaves, and the less likely it is to kill the root.
- Tom

lol...you should consider yourself lucky..
you have a ready cash crop growing right there in your own yard.

it sells for nice $$ for those who are inclined to harvest it and sell to buyers.

I see van loads, truck loads and other vehicles, just full to capacity of the greenery.
and of course, winter is even better for growth and sales.

Kudzu?

You've never had the pleasure of Kudzu? I only mention it because it is the true zenith of evil, an intelligent & malevolent weed that was surely crafted by the devil himself.
Got it in a plant trade from out of state; took me four years to eliminate it.

So you planted it, rather than had it come up on its own.

Back in the 1980's I bought some kudzu seeds from J.L. Hudson, that was before it is illegal in Washington State and I didn't know any better. The ones that germinated I planted out in the spring, six plants. They didn't grow much that summer and that decade had lots of cold winters, so when winter came they all froze out, never came back the following spring. I haven't and wouldn't try them again, but I don't think they are as aggresive in the PNW as they are on the east coast.

As for salal, I just bought a home with 1.3 acre lot with a bank of ivy that is being shaded out by salal, salmon and thimble berries, and red elderberries. I want them all gone so will have to use something like Brush-be-gone to get rid of all of them. I have to be careful because it has spread into my neighbor's property and when I asked him if I could remove it from both the ground and trees, he said No. He liked the look of ivy growing up trees. I don't.

Mine came as a hidden passenger in a trade where I received a 'Sum and Substance' Hosta for some orchids. It was a bad year for weeding for me (aren't they all) and it went to seed before I noticed what it really was. Big mistake, mine spread like wildfire.

If spraying tough to kill things like I'm doing with Salal and Blackberry I highly recommend a product McLendons sells by Hi-Yield named 'Spreader Sticker' -- you mix it with the brush killer in the garden sprayer and it helps the solution to stick to plants that have glossy/semi-glossy leaves (e.g., salal and ivy). The stuff works really well. It's sold in 3 sizes and isn't very expensive, you only mix a small amount in a garden sprayer. Otherwise what happens on slick leaves is the solution tends to bead off being useless but this stuff really makes the solution stick.

I'm glad I found this thread ~ I received a Hydrangea presentation bouquet for M'Day ~ have thrown the H blossoms weeks ago & asked the florist about these impressive, slick dark green stems that came w/ & still looking great! Researched it & here I am as I thought I may want to plant a couple ~ no longer!!!
I'm sucker for beautiful foliage ~ Ginkgo, Quacking Aspen, Baltic Ivy, Periwinkle, Bishop's Weed, Arc Angel Lamiastrum, Columbines etc ... got rid of B-Weed & Quacking Aspen & Ginkgo is a metamorphosed Prince ~ still love. I don't think I need another slave driving headache!

FWIW ~ just glad I got here before another didsaster happens!!!

I haven't tried any herbicides. Just deprive it of light after cutting it back & pulling up the spreading roots.

It is harder if you have precious plants next to it. I'd move the plants away & deeply mulch the entire area.

I pull shoots as they appear & keep mulching deeply. I've also sheet mulched w/ burlap as top layer and also used entact straw bales to grow tomatoes right on top of the cut back salal.

In a few years the shoots are almost gone. I just keep up with the mulch & patrolling.

For those digging up salal, it's as corrine1 said about just digging up all the roots and mulching.
The yard here is surrounded by native growth. It will never stop trying to move in.

I found a very interesting thing today cutting salal. A salal root ball, and some kind of reproductive thing ready to spread, a thing that looked like a yellow double pinecone. Here's a photo.

the other photo...

Salal is invasive as far as I'm concerned, when I was dealing with it I'd pull on a LONG runner (maybe up to 6') that was connecting one above ground plant to another, runners all over the place that formed a colony.

Luckily I won the battle and the most I have now is every once in awhile a tiny bit that comes up but it gets sprayed with weed killer with spreader sticker in it.

Ok, so I got the Round Up and the Spreader Sticker. Do I mix them full strength and paint the leaves? I've pulled out as much as I could but the last small area left is so crowded with roots from other desirable plants that I am resorting to your method. Please advise.

Luckily I didn't have to deal with trying to kill it very close to desirable plants. I think paint it on leaves is your best chance of not killing the desirables. But the desirables aren't very desirable when they're being choked out by Salal.

Yes I would hit it as high of a strength as you can afford to do.

I removed salal by excavating. The root system is extensive, like a spider web that is about 1-2 feet underground. I used a shovel, a pickaxe, a wheelbarrow, and a sifter. I did a small 4' x 1' x 2' section at a time. First I removed the dirt and then I sifted the dirt to remove all roots. The entire area was about 15' x 50' (on a slope) so this was a spring/summer project. My salal was old and taking over.

I read the post (above) about weed killer beading up and dripping off smooth leaves like salal and ivy before it could be absorbed. Instead of using "leaf spreader" additive to weed killer, use a small amount of dish soap in the weed killer solution. The weed killer will then stick much better to the slick leaves.

HU-106689051 you think dish soap is better than spreader sticker?

if you have the means, goats and Scottish highland cattle will eat Gorse, Broom, and Salal. They still take a couple of years to control it and it's never 100%, but sometimes close. will depend on the headcount.

I live deep in the PNW forest - the best way to control salal is with a shovel and pulling the roots with your hands. i rarely remove it, though, because so many birds eat the berries and it is an important part of the natural understory, critical to shading roots of larger trees in this changing climate. i am alarmed about the talk of round-up and weed killers - think of your soil and the life around the salals and the ecosystem. If you have salal you probably have rich, deep soil that is supporting an icredible amount of funghi and insects that are crucial to a heatlthy garden - looking at it from another angle, it is a gift. i tend to work with the salal and plant around them with other plantings.

Soil: Salal grows on a variety of mineral and organic substrates
including shallow rocky soils, sand dunes, coarse alluvium, glacial
till, and peat [45,56]. Growth is generally best on moist sandy or
peaty soils where salal occurs as a vigorous upright shrub [45]. Salal
grows on nutrient poor to moderately rich soils [45,79]. On shallow,
droughty soils, plants may assume a matlike growth form. Salal commonly
grows on decaying wood and stumps and can grow as an epiphyte on living
trees in extremely humid areas [45]. It occurs on soils derived from a
wide range of parent material including diorite, breccia and basalt,
serpentine, granite, and metamorphic rock [51,114,138,139].

Gaultheria shallon (fs.fed.us)

I was told a combination of Crossbow and Weed B Gon worked for a neighbor. I've never seen the recipe for that but maybe just sprayed with both in separate containers?

Salal is a REALLY important Native plant. It serves a lot of wildlife in the ecosystem. Do you want the native birds to survive? Well, then, don't kill one of the necessary native berries that feeds them, and a host plant for insects that birds eat as well as shade plant for tiny wildlife. If you are spraying poisons on your native plants in your yard, you are killing native wildlife.

Personally, I think Salal is beautiful. It is not invasive, it is easy to control.

OMG stop poisoning the earth with weed killer, especially on something that is so awesome. Salal is native to PNW, and therefore much better than your ornamentals which create a food dessert for the critters. I was just searching for how to help it grow and thrive and I found this thread ( after ripping out ornamental fussy plants that previous owner planted (many have died (because they are not suited for here), or they were invasive. Salal has great benefits!