Delta Projects

Paul J. Rainey Sanctuary

Our Goals
Enhance coastal and community resilience in coastal Vermilion and Iberia Parishes in Louisiana. We do this through increased and more sustainable storm-surge protection, decreased flood risk, and enhanced commercial and recreational fishery nurseries.
What We’re Doing
̽»¨¾«Ñ¡ collaborates with partners both private and public to address the root causes of wetland loss by combining best practices in restoration with novel methods to create, restore, and improve wetland health across 11 percent of Louisiana's coastline.
Paul J. Rainey Wildlife Sanctuary

A Living Laboratory on the Gulf  

The 26,000-acre Paul J Rainey Wildlife Sanctuary in southwest Louisiana makes the ̽»¨¾«Ñ¡ a stakeholder, with real interests and concerns over the health and sustainability of this landscape. For 100 years, Rainey has served and influenced coastal restoration and revival efforts by applying cutting-edge, natural infrastructure marsh restoration and hydrologic regulation techniques and demonstrating its benefits. It is home to over 250 bird species, including Yellow and Black Rails, Least and Gull-billed Terns, Green Herons, and occasionally Whooping Cranes.    

The area at one time was primarily fresh marsh, and was dominated by a slow, east-west drainage of rainwater through meandering bayous between east-west ridges. Because of dramatic changes in hydrology that resulted from the north-south excavation of the Freshwater Bayou Navigation Canal and the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway, the area is now dominated by tidal flushing, with salinity levels that have induced habitats to shift to brackish marsh. This increased tidal flushing and increased water flow also activates and removes sediment and organics from the marshes, which further affects the resilience of the area.

The Sanctuary has always had an onsite land-manager and is now under the competent care of the Senior Sanctuary Manager, Timmy Vincent. Along with our neighbors, ̽»¨¾«Ñ¡ works on a regional scale to actively manage the marsh health. By pooling resources to protect our neighbors’ land, we protect our own. This has always been the philosophy of the region but is now formalized by the Rainey Conservation Alliance.