Monster vine

I recently bought some property for permaculture and just discovered this beast of a grapeving pulling down a a small tree. This is at the end of my easement and I need to open it up for parking my van & an RV. At the same time I’m just starting out and thinking I could use the existing productivity to support the chickens I plan to bring in (edit: *until I get things better established).

Do I wait for next winter to prune it and train it to grow towards the left? Do I cut it back a few feet every year or just to where I want it? And other advice for best dealing with it?

There is another huge grapevine to the right, but right now I don’t see any issues with that one.

I have some gardening experience but permaculture and wild grapes is taking things to a whole other level, so please answer like I’m an idiot (lol).

The first thing I'd do is make 100% sure it's a grapevine. Poison ivy vines up trees like that, too, and there are wild grape look alikes, that are toxic. There are other things that come into play, too. Like, how does the land lay? Is it closer to the house? Do you have kids or animals that might eat them?

Welcome to Permies, Vanessa! Congrats on the new property. That is quite the vine. It does look an awful lot like wild grape, though I agree with Carla to be 100% sure on your ID.

If it is grape, you're right that it's a great resource for chickens. Mine adore wild grapes and the leaves. So it's wise of you to consider other options besides chopping. I don't have great answers, as I am trying to learn to work with similarly huge grape vines on my land. One thing I do know is that pruning ones that size at this point in the year doesn't usually go well for them. When I have had to do that, they bleed for a long, long time and get crazy fungus growing on the cut ends. I've also found that once they reach that size, they're often not super flexible and options for redirecting them are somewhat limited. I've sometimes been able to use rope to tie them out of the way until a better time to prune though. I'd be inclined to do something like that, if possible.

Hopefully someone else has better answers for you about if there is a way to prune and train them over time.