How do you deal with aggressive poison ivy?

We have had an overly healthy poison ivy population in our woods about 500 feet from the house ever since we bought the place 20 years ago. Ever since then we have been planting various fruit and shade trees up by the house, and in the last year or two we have found poison ivy popping up all over under the trees near the house. My concern is that once I pick a spot and plant a forest garden the poison ivy will pop up there too and I will eventually harvest something contaminated with urishol and eat it.

Does anybody have experience eradicating or preventing poison ivy?

I understand your concern.

Here is a tip that might help for areas like you described:

I have poison oak because I am on the west coast. What I have been doing is taking a spray bottle and filling it with vinegar and adding small pinch of salt and a few drops dish soap. I spray that on the plants and they hate it.

https://permies.com/t/36020/poison-ivy-wooded-area

You also might enjoy this thread:

https://permies.com/t/16419/Poison-Ivy-Eyes-Permaculture

N Stephenson,

I, too, have had to tackle poison ivy, as in hundreds of feet of the vines.  In my case, ultimately I was forced to don long pants, long sleeved shirts, gloves and go and pull as much of the sprawling vines as I could.  Eventually I tracked it down to a central tap-root.  At that point I dug down deep and severed the tap root as deep as possible and re-covered with dirt.  I watched carefully and any little leaves of poison ivy that started to pop up I hit immediately with vinegar.  I only had to use vinegar a couple of times at which point it just gave up.

I am highly allergic to poison ivy so getting it out was an absolute must for me.  After working I stripped off my clothes and dumped them in the washer and immediately washed them while I showered.  I lucked out and did not get poison ivy.  Your mileage may vary.

Eric