Nick Dillon plunges the holes for Tony Tejada to place each plug of smooth cordgrass at the Sesuit Creek in Dennis. (Jesse Costa/WBUR)
wbur | By Barbara Moran
Nicholas Dillon picked up a 3-foot metal spike and jammed it into the mud at his feet. He ground it around to widen a hole, then another worker placed a small tuft of grass into the muddy divot.
One plant down, several thousand to go.
Dillon, a foreman with SumCo Eco-Contracting, is part of a massive effort to restore Sesuit Creek Marsh in Dennis before it drowns in tidal surges and heavy rainfall that are increasing with climate change. Workers and volunteers planted 90,000 plugs of smooth cordgrass in May and June, hoping to jump start the wetland’s recovery.
It’s one of the biggest such plantings in state history. Dillon called the work “monotonous,” but also satisfying.
