Last summer we moved into a 30 year old new to us home, in which the back yard is a beautiful woodland. There is ancient English Ivy growing up two huge and also ancient trees (not sure of the variety of the trees, but they are twice as tall as our split level home.) The stems of some of the ivy is probably 4" in diameter, maybe bigger.

The ivy grows over, around, and through a wood fence that, needless to say, is starting to sag under it's weight. The fence is probably as old as the house, and needs replacing (we have two dogs and a toddler, so a fence is a must.)

My questions are thus:

1. What do I do to move/prune the ivy back, to make room to build the new fence, and have the ivy grow back? (Will it grow back? And how long can I expect it to take?)

2. I'm guessing that chain link is probably the way to go if I want to train the ivy back over the fence (which I do, I'm a photographer, and do a lot of portrait sessions in my back yard, and don't love the look of chain link!)

3. In other places the ivy seems to be taking over, how and when can I prune it without it looking like a hack job?

I hope there are some ivy experts here! TIA