ON TAMBOUR BAY, LA. -- In the next act of the drama of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, two of the most important heroes don't look like heroes. They are just thin green stalks, sticking out of grass too wet to stand on.
They are cordgrass and wiregrass, common species that wave in the winds in south Louisiana's coastal marshes. Except, in some places, they aren't waving anymore: Where oil has sloshed into the marshes, their stalks are matted and gooey and on their way to death.
What happens next -- whether these two grasses rebound or vanish -- will be a very important piece of the gulf's larger environmental story. Now that the well has been capped, the next question is whether marsh and marine ecosystems can shrug off the oil's damage, or whether it will leave them with lasting wounds.
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