The Atchafalaya National Heritage Area

comprises fourteen parishes in and around the Atchafalaya Basin in south-central Lousiana - Ascension, Assumption, Avoyelles, Concordia, East Baton Rouge, Iberia, Iberville, Lafayette, Pointe Coupee, St. Landry, St. Martin, St. Mary, Terrebonne, and West Baton Rouge. Bounded by parish lines, the Heritage Area encompasses 8,362 square miles with a population of 1,272,772. The Atchafalaya Basin itself is now a massive 15 to 20 mile floodway, some 150 miles long from Old River in the north to Morgan City in the south, covering roughly 838,000 acres.