The Mississippi Department of Transportation is working with federal and local agencies to fight cogongrass, an invasive weed that’s spreading across the Southeast.

Cogongrass is reducing forest and pasture productivity, destroying wildlife habitat and creating fire hazards.

Chemical spraying started last summer along the sides of state highways 15 and 26 in Harrison and Stone Counties.

Patty Rogers is with the Mississippi Coastal Plains Resource, Conservation and Development. The group is working with MDOT on the test spraying. Rogers says cogongrass is an invasive weed that has to be stopped before it completely consumes south Mississippi.

Cogongrass slipped into the U.S. through the port at Mobile, Ala., as packing material in 1912, and can thrive in shade or sun, in rich or poor soil.