Rainey Conservation Alliance

A coalition of landowners and land managers working in southern Vermilion Parish, Louisiana.

Alliance members

The Rainey Conservation Alliance is a unique, effective, and powerful coalition of landowners and managers working together in southern Vermilion Parish, Louisiana. Each alliance member has a long history in the region and a deep commitment to Louisiana's people, wetlands, waters, and wildlife. Alliance members currently include the following:

E. A. McIlhenny Enterprises
National Audubon Society
Sagrera Lands
Vermilion Corporation

The alliance represents more than 185,000 contiguous acres of marsh, forested ridges, and beach habitats in Vermilion Parish, including the National Audubon Society's Paul J. Rainey Wildlife Sanctuary, which Audubon has managed as a wildlife sanctuary since it was donated to the society in 1924.

What makes the alliance unique?

The Rainey Conservation Alliance is defined by landowners and managers who treat their properties not as separate, independent units but as one continuous landscape. Alliance members make decisions and share resources to promote sound natural resource management and habitat restoration across all lands in the project area.

What makes the alliance effective?

The landscape's health depends primarily on water flow and sediments through the marsh in a marsh ecosystem. A management approach that places property boundaries second and marsh integrity first allows property managers to address challenges at a regional scale instead of trying to fend for themselves.

Alliance partners are also pioneering new innovative and cost-effective technologies and practices for managing and restoring coastal marsh, building on each partner's experience and expertise. By working together, alliance partners can leverage their resources to secure significant funding from various public and private sources and achieve more than $110 million dollars of on-the-ground restoration work.

What makes the alliance powerful?

The Rainey Conservation Alliance brings a powerful, united presence when advocating conservation by aligning resources and voices. This alignment attracts funding, influences policy, and accelerates progress. The whole is truly greater than the sum of its significant parts.

Today, as direct marsh restoration and stabilization work continues, alliance partners are broadening their vision. They are pursuing large restoration projects worth tens of millions of dollars and meeting regularly with Louisiana and federal agencies to advance projects and meet challenges that affect the entire region.

Rainey Conservation Alliance partners are committed to wise management and use of Louisiana's great natural resources, restoration of habitat that has been lost or damaged, and a healthy, productive future for Louisiana's people, birds, and other wildlife.