I can't say how it is in VA but I wouldn't be so quick to hack true grape vines. Porcelain Berry, however, does need to be hacked at.

I have tons of wild grape vine here in north central NC, and I've only "had" to remove one vine that was smothering three dogwood trees...and I do mean smothering. I had to use a chainsaw to cut through the vine several times--it was as thick as my wrist! But the many other established vines I'm leaving in place--they encourage birds and are a native vine that the forest has dealt with naturally for who knows how long. It's not my place to remove them. Aside from all this, they add visual interest to the woods--rollercoaster vines that loop up a hundred feet or more into the upper canopy.

{{gwi:227167}}

I do the same as mbuckmaster, I remove an occasional grape vine that has the upper hand on a tree or shrub I want to encourage, but leave most of them in place. Most large trees do just fine with grape vines in them, and the birds and wildlife definitely benefits from grape vines.

The tendrils gird the branches of a tree and will kill it,eventually. All grape vine in my woods get cut at the ground. Wild grape vines here have few---and somes no--fruit because all their energy is spent growing more vine. The trees are of more value than the grape vine.

Most of my grape vines are 70-100' tall into tulip poplars that couldn't care less. Some loop around on themselves and all fruit, I think. Sometimes it's tough to tell because the birds eat the fruit so quickly and often it's high up where I can barely see it. But they are native vines that nature has put there...I don't know that I'm convinced they "hurt" trees.

Here's a closeup of the vine above:
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It seems like a fair fight between the grape vines and trees at my house. I like the grapes because the birds like them. I like the trees too. They seem to coexist just fine to me. I think they look good too.

The grapes help prune the trees which helps keep the trees in better health. They also provide shade keeping the soil from becoming to dry and stressing the trees and making the surrounding soil too dry for undergrowth.

In my opinion the idea of removing all of the vines from trees will be found to be very bad for the environment.

Wild grape grows as thick as a thigh here, and tears trees down every year.
Once the vines tear the tree down, you can get a good look at the wild grape.
The plant is very interesting.

Josh

FYI, green-zeus some types of grapevines have male and female blossoms which may be why you never see fruit. In this area depending on the type you can see wild grapes from June until frost as each ripen at different times.

I have a large apple tree that was killed by a wild grape vine covering it entirely and blocking out its sun. I have many other apple and pear trees with grape vines attacking them, stealing their sun mainly. I pull them down once in a while, especially off the lilacs and currants. But birds plant so many, and I have many worse things to deal with (grey dogwood, buckthorn, poison ivy) that I don't really focus on the wild grapes. But I can't see how pulling them off other valued trees and shrubs is bad for the environment, they are obviously stealing sun and nutrition from more desirable plants.

A friend made wild grape jelly once from my plants, and I make them into grapevine wreaths when I pull them off things.

Marcia

I basically agree with others on this thread that wild Grape vines are native and a natural part of a woodland ecology. If they happen to be damaging a particular specimen, sure they can be hacked, but otherwise I leave them alone. I kinda like the way the vines create a tangle, the birds and other wildlife just love it.

On the other hand, I've declared war on the Oriental Bittersweet (Celastrus orbiculatus) that is a plague in my yard and neighborhood. This non-native invasive vine has laid waste to many native trees, even large ones. I've started carrying a folding saw with me while walking the neighborhood and cutting the large vines. I found one that was over four inches in diameter that was growing up a large dying oak! That baby must have been growing for 40 freakin' years, and nobody ever cut it.

Led_zep, I am curious why you need to keep the Gray dogwood under control, which is a native. I would love it if the understory around here included Gray dogwood, now it's just a sea of invasives, mostly Honeysuckle, Buckthorn, and Multiflora rose.

I forgot to mention that it was very nice of the person that started this thread to volunteer his help regardless of what my thoughts on grape vine may be.