This large landscape scale study has a focus on the interplay between the worlds of plants and geology in this very marginal ‘land’ environment of the Mississippi River delta. Over 20 years of study will be presented focused on four areas: plant colonization, primary production, wetland elevation dynamics, and finally the role of a single species, Phragmites australis, in the delta. The entire talk will have the underlying theme of how these results relate to the overall serious problem of Louisiana coastal wetland loss (down to averaging about 25 square miles/yr). Certainly, the devastation of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005 brought a national focus to this problem.