MYROLE RTM1- Featured GrASS on 25 Jan 2011, 330pm

GrASS's Product Video

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We Need YOUR HELP

Dear Friends,

We here at GrASS need your help to help us gather the below mentioned items to help us raise funds for our shelter and other independent pet rescuers.

The items are:

Scrap Paper
Old Newspapers
Old Magazines
Unwanted uncooked/raw Acidic Fruits ( Oranges, pineapples, lime,lemons)
Unwanted uncooked/raw fruits
Unwanted uncooked/raw Vegetables
Brown Sugar
Rice Bran
Red Earth
Glass Jars/Plastic containers with lids
Cardboard boxes (any other cardboard materials)
Aluminium Cans
Expired Food Products

For more ways on how or what items you can donate to help please visit HERE


Thursday, August 6, 2009

Article: A new haven for fireflies

Thursday August 6, 2009

By CHAN LI LEEN

LANDSCAPE designer M. Anand has proven others wrong that fireflies can only thrive around mangrove trees, the berembang and api-api.

He has managed to increase the population of fireflies in a 'self-made forest' in front of his home in Taman Tasik Indah, Taiping, from 80 to about 2,000 now.

"There is not a single berembang or api-api tree there," Anand said of the forest he had put together with the acacia and other trees and shrubs.

Landscape designer M. Anand succeeded in breeding fireflies at his manmade 'forest' in Taiping.

"From my observation, it is the acacia that the fireflies like," he added.

The realisation came to Anand after returning from one of his regular visits to Kampung Kayan in Sitiawan three years back.

"I was sitting in my garden that night, looking at the stars.

"It occurred to me that it could probably be the acacia the fireflies liked," said Anand, 43, who remembered that there were also acacia trees in Kampung Kayan and Kuala Gula near Taiping.

Previously working in the civil service in Kuala Lumpur, Anand used to make regular trips back to Perak to watch fireflies at mangrove swamps in the two areas in his free time.

And with each visit in that period spanning 15 years, Anand could not help but notice that their numbers were dwindling.

Anand showing a firefly resting underneath a leaf in his forest.

"That night, I decided to turn the land in front of my house, which already had a few acacia trees, into a forest to breed fireflies," he related.

The very next morning, Anand drove all the way from Taiping to Yong Peng, Johor, to get more trees.

It took him two months to collect all the 37 different trees and shrubs needed for his firefly forest, which resembles more like a garden, complete with a pathway, shack for relaxation and open-air shower.

"I learnt from a pakcik (uncle) I befriended in Kampung Kayan on what trees and shrubs to plant there," he said.

Innovative: An open air shower in Anand's forest.

Five months after the trees and shrubs had fully grown, Anand brought 80 fireflies from Kampung Kayan and released it into his forest.

"Initially, the numbers dwindled but then they started to breed three weeks later.

"There were flashing lights everywhere at night," he said, adding that the fireflies in his forest gave out the colours of fluorescent yellow, white and green.

According to Anand who would patent his technique soon, several government departments and hotels had approached him to breed fireflies for them.

"I'm not too keen. I want to do more research on their habitat and their conservation," he said.


This article was taken from: The Star Online: Metro: North 6 August 2009

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