I just bought a new house In Lindon, Utah this winter with a big treehouse nestled between three beautiful 60-year-old elms only to discover that the bolts they drilled into the trees killed them.  They have to cut off everything above about 25 feet off the ground so the branches don't fall and kill someone---in fact, one large branch broke off a few days ago and could have crushed our fence, but got tangled in another branch.

In trying to come up with a way to deal with this heartache, I thought that perhaps we could plant strangler figs around the bases of the dead elms.  I'd be thrilled if they scaled them and started producing a new canopy.  I'm not so much concerned with the taste of the fruit as how quickly they grow.

Is it possible?

Wont the tree trunks eventually decay?  I'd go with hardy kiwi.  They have good fruit and grow fast.

Strangler figs are more tropical. I suspect they would not survive the weather in your area.

yeah.. hardy kiwi. i heard they grow very fast and will be out of control in no time. and good fruit. make sure got get male and female. no maile, no fruit.

American Elm is very hardy tree and can live several hundred years.
Sure it was bolts holding treehouse or what has wiped out many
of the American Elm called Dutch Elm Disease.

In the 60s they were dominant street tree in our town only to be stricken and cut down .
Currently have one that was propagated growing in our yard from a stand of them back east by a famous university that is said to be not immune but resistant to the disease and do well to date.
They have them planted in various places like at the White House.

Another fast growing vine is Silver Lace.
It can grow 15' the first year planted and has nice little white flowers that will cover the top.

Decaying trees brings lots of ants i think so i would cut Them to the ground.

Hardy kiwi looks like a viable option, thanks!   The trees have not yet begun to decay; all of the bark up to the treehouse is still alive and elms continually put out suckers.  But the structural integrity of the tree is gone, so the canopy has to come down.

I really only need the treehouse around for a few more years while my boys are growing up, and I think these three large elm trunks will be just fine for that long.  If we're still here when grandkids come along, I can build a treehouse *around* the fourth elm without damaging it.  

The one my dad built for my siblings and me wrapped around the trunk of a tall maple tree and was suspended by cables from the lowest branches.  The branches were about fifteen feet up, and the floor of the treehouse was about eight feet off the ground.  Nothing penetrated the bark of the tree.