Oh, shoot, Nahant needs to stem the tide

NAHANT – They may not look like much but 70,000 beach “shoots,” given time to grow, will provide a first line of defense along Short Beach to repel storms that roll off the Atlantic Ocean and sock Nahant.”They’ll take root in a couple of years, grow and collect sand to gradually create a barrier,” said town public works laborer Dan Gauvain.Community-service crews made up of six to eight inmates from the Essex County pre-release and reentry center in Lawrence have been planting beach grass for the last two weeks along Short Beach from the Coast Guard station almost to Antigo Way.Arranged in neat rows like cornstalks planted in a field, the grass shoots are grown in New Jersey and flourish in sandy soil. Gauvain said wind-blown sand will gradually collect around the shoots and pile up, creating a storm-barrier berm between the water and the main road into town.”The taller they get, the more sand they collect,” he said.Gauvain said the planting should be completed any day.Beth Rigol has been watching the planting progress as she cuts hair at Beachcombers Hair Salon. She has heard Nahant natives tell stories about the Blizzard of ’78 and No Name Storm of 1991, in which the ocean spilled across the street, with rocks and debris being propelled through the windows of buildings along Nahant Road.”A barrier is what we need. The hope is it keeps water from coming over,” Rigol said.