Standing among the overgrown lots and derelict homes of New Orleans’ Lower Ninth Ward, it is hard to imagine that the wetland abutting this neighborhood used to be a fisherman’s paradise, houseboat community, and retreat destination.



Bayou Bienvenue is now a degraded 30,000-acre swampy wasteland confined by years of flood management engineering—the Industrial Canal to the west, the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway to the north, the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet (MRGO) to the east, and an embankment to the south protecting the Lower Ninth Ward, home to about 18,000 people before Hurricane Katrina flooded the area in 2005, and other New Orleans neighborhoods.



The Sewerage and Water Board of New Orleans (SWBNO), St. Bernard Parish, the U.S. Army Corps