Two images, Ivy, Hedera helix covering both plants. The pine trunks are sturdy and it will take several seasons to smother these. The Viburnum is different, colonised at the same time the two are totally different in their approach and growth habit. The Ivy in the Viburnum should be removed with urgency; the vigorous evergreen growth will smother the life out of this plant. Vigour will be reduced and the Viburnum smothered by the end of the 2017 growing season. In the case of the Pines; secateurs can be used to snip the shoots growing up the trunk. The severed growth will die back and can then be pulled from the trunk.

Ivy smothering Viburnum

Ivy on trunk of Pinus contorta