Its a great cover crop for erosion control…ditches, hillsides, riverbanks etc not so much for garden/perennial beds…it grows very fast wrapping itself around anything it can, even itself to take light dominance strangling everything in its way. Shade plants don’t mind and do provide some warmth to the soil earlier in the spring as we defrost (1 month break up season) so the powers that be thought it would be awesome to mix it in with natural grasses trying to restore the ground as streets and highways were built thinking that other things in the mix like yarrow, canada thistle, narrowleaf hawksbeard, oxeye daisy etc would plow through only to die a very slow death through light deprivation. The ones that managed to survive like our precious fireweed even got taken over by it which used to be synonymous of our highways seeing fields of it alongside the roadway though not anymore.
In fact, UA (university of Ak) joined with UCM (Usibelli coal mine) to do a restoration seed mix to over plant certain areas releasing 8 tons of seeds over 5,500 acres a yr for like 30 or so yrs to try to choke it out to no avail…it just takes over anywhere its introduced.
Some like my mom agreed it was pretty and erosion control is a must on 1.5 acres with 0.75 acres is sand and backfill surrounded by trees to divide properties so she like many, brought it home. After awhile, seeing our natural plants being destroyed as it takes over, some thought it would be a good idea to burn it only for it to come back with a vengeance acting alot like horsetail which led to deeper burning which of course added to the natural wildfires we have up here except some of our wildfires go really deep underground continuing to burn through the winter in -10-30f only to resurface in the spring hungry for more carbon. Whats the 1st to come up and thrives with torture? vetch.
This went on for a few yrs and needed to stop so some research said the community needed to be educated so restoration seed packs were handed out (still have a couple) for the project to broadcast it in trouble area’s instead of burning it… It helped though not enough so another study said forget the adults and target the elementary kids so various classrooms took trips out to swamps to learn about the eco system with a highlight on vetch…like anything else, it has its place its just not native here and is eliminating native species though that seems to be ok because it adds to the eco system. Fine.
Now those kids are in their early 20’s and can care less like many of us at that age…well among those that actually stay and with an average of 30% yearly population change among ~700,000 at any given time being a “military, at will state” triple the size of Tx being mostly owned by the federal government, people have forgotten over the yrs or never experienced fireweed filled trenches shining bright among daisy’s, siberian irises, napweed and hawksbeard with patches of wild oats and cheatgrass along the roadside as its mostly gone being replaced by the bird vetch except for the odd patch of cheatgrass here and there (((sigh))) Its nature I suppose and it is pretty just not the same…just keep it away from my plants for the 3-4 months of yr the ground isn’t frozen 4’ deep and i’ll be happy
pepper? it sure looks like one.
but… it seems what’s needed is the right bug or animal to eat it down. historically that can backfire(was it rabbits & australia?)… but when i hear what hogs can do to bermuda-grass(it’s going extinct in Tx) or nutsedge/grass, i want to borrow some piggies. they essentially destroy everything except dust to a depth of 3’ apparently. 
