The Friends of Louisiana Wildlife Refuges will stage its last Work/Play Day of the season Saturday in Lacombe.

The organization holds the hands-on volunteer events on various National Wildlife Refuges throughout Southeast Louisiana.

Saturday’s gathering will take place at the refuge headquarters in Lacombe, beginning at 9 a.m. Volunteers will continue work begun in 2006 to restore Bayou Gardens, a 25-acre section of the headquarters site. Trails are being restored that were severely damaged by Hurricane Katrina, and the gardens are being prepared for summer. Other improvements, such as a new paved entrance road, extensive walkways and landscaping have also been installed.

The work portion of the day will end at noon, followed by a lunch, and then the play portion, a canoe outing on Bayou Lacombe, will begin.

FLWR is a non-profit organization formed in 1996 to support conservation and education projects on all the refuges in the Southeast Louisiana Complex. Nine Work/Play days were held in 2007, which included storm debris removal, trail rebuilding, Beach Sweep, and abandoned crab trap removal, in addition to the Bayou Gardens project.

The group also sponsors the annual Youth Fishing Derby at Bogue Chitto Refuge, on the Louisiana-Mississippi state line.

More information about FLWR can be found at www.friendsoflouisianawildliferefuges.org.

Work/Play Days will be suspended for the summer and will resume on Oct. 11 in anticipation of the annual Wild Things Festival to be held the following weekend.

The Southeast Louisiana Wildlife Refuge Headquarters is located at 61389 Louisiana Highway 434 in Lacombe. To sign up or for more information, call Jim Schmidt at 882-2019 or Byron Fortier at 882-2025.