Has the poison ivy sprouted any leaves yet? If not, do you know how to recognize it without leaves? If you don't, then there is nothing you can do until it sprouts leaves and you can recognize it - then you can spray it with brush killer.

I agree with Esh. If you know how to identify the vine without the leaves you could clip it now whereever it is climbing on trees and thus reduce the amount of poison ivy on your property and also be able to focus your later efforts at ground level.

In my experience, poison ivy takes on 3 different forms: vines climbing up trees; vines sprawling along the ground; and small individual plants to small bushes.

Start with the vines growing up trees, if you have any. If you see a very hairy vine growing up the side of a tree tightly clinging to the bark, it's PI. Cut it now and paint the cut with a brush killer. The vines are most prolific at producing seeds and more PI for next year, and they are easiest to spot b4 leaves come out.

For the vines growing along ground, and the individual plants/bushes, you'll have to wait for them to leaf out, which should be happening in the next couple of weeks. Fresh new growth has a shiny green look, with 3 leaves, of course. These you can pull by (gloved!) hand. It's best to use herbicide on them in mid to late summer. Even then some of it will survive a thorough spraying. I use roundup to its maximum recommended concentration.

We also live in the woods, and our kids are in the woods daily. We use Tecnu, which is great to use before or after excursions. I am highly reactive to PI, and I only get it if I fail to use the Tecnu.

BTW, welcome to the forum!

Try the Round Up Poison Ivy spray. It works and the ivy never comes back.

I agree with civilengr3 that Tecnu is the best stuff on the market to use.