You only have to look on a nearby roadside to understand the problems that can occur when a non-native plant or animal or fish species gets introduced into a region where it doesn't belong. Planting a Japanese species of plant called kudzu to control erosion seemed like a good idea when the soil conservation service encouraged Southern farmers to plant it on roadsides and hillsides from 1935 to the early 1950s. It wasn't long, though, before the plant that grows 60 feet in a year began to envelop the South. The coyote, which is now being found in New York City, was eventually going to find its way from the west to Alabama anyway, but our state got a good head start over other Southern states. In 1967, fox hunters introduced the coyote into St. Clair County to have another species to track and the population eventually spread statewide.
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