Just the slightest bit of Poison Oak really messes me up, I hate it, but it serves such an amazing role in our ecosystem! Alcohol/hand sanitizer is usually my quick fix to minimize its damage. A rinse in salt water is supposed to help if you are by the sea, and a shower using dawn dish soap works wonders to cut the oils.
It resembles a baby oak tree but is actually more closely related to cashews.
They say leaves of three, leave it be. And because of the vital roles it plays in our ecosystem, we should leave it be! Just always check twice for it before hugging a tree, and hiking in general. I also look for the distinct leaf shape, glossy waxy oil coating, and red color it sometimes has.
“Poison oak is a resilient, native shrub valuable in many ways to its plant and animal community, despite our unhappy, itchy relationship with it. Birds, particularly the California towhee, but also American robins, catbirds, and grosbeaks forage on its berries, spreading its seeds through their droppings. Birds also dine on insects hidden in poison oak vines. Its dense foliage has been known to support nests of the endangered least Bell’s vireo, and one study highlighted its importance to bird abundance and variety in cottonwood/poison oak woodlands along the Sacramento River in California. Because the urushiol oil does not affect wildlife as it does humans, ungulates, like black-tailed deer and livestock, can browse its nutritious leaves, as can small mammals, which also shelter in its thickets.
Poison oak is a pioneer species, readily sprouting in disturbed areas, such as in recent burns. By stabilizing newly disturbed soil, it paves the way for other plants to establish—a process known as succession.”
From https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/pacific-poison-oak.htm
And another good article on the benefits of poison oak: https://www.mbnep.org/2017/09/08/poison-oak-natures-immune-response/