Anti-1080 crusaders to show film

Clyde and Steve Graf aerial 1080 protesters and documentary film-makers will speak in Carterton this week against government use of the poison.
The brothers, based in Hamilton, are to speak at the Deerstalkers' clubrooms in Parkvale Hall on Wednesday and will highlight what they say is damning new evidence of incidental harm from aerial drops of 1080 poison in Fiordland.
The brothers this year spent time in the South Island gathering footage for their second film on the issue after release of their first documentary, A Shadow of Doubt, which was produced in the lead-up to last year's Environment Risk Management Authority review of the use of 1080 by the Department of Conservation and the Animal Health Board.
"As far as my brother and I are concerned, the bigger the noise we can all make about this, the better off we'll all be as a result. The scientific and medical evidence now coming to light proves that 1080 has no positive outcome for New Zealand's flora and fauna can no longer be ignored, Mr Graf said.
"In my opinion, the public have been misrepresented for too long in regard to the information they have been fed about 1080. Irreversible damage has probably already been done and surely we must now err on the side caution."
Their first feature length-film demonstrates the "in the field" dangers of 1080 and includes graphic footage of dead wildlife as well as powerful testimonials from farmers, hunters, scientists, university lecturers and Maori tribal elders, Mr Graf said.
The Graf brothers are keen outdoorsmen and shot the documentary over a five-month period in Te Urewera National Park as part of a non-profit project to highlight their environmental concerns.
ERMA this year described 1080 as a "necessary evil" in the war against possums.
1080 is a poison that kills mammals and insects, which "can be lethal to humans but not quite as lethal as cyanide", the ERMA statement continued.
The pesticide is monitored most closely where drops are made near waterways and water supply intakes. An ERMA decision last year recognised there is no practical alternative to the continued use of 1080 in areas where the preservation of native bush and agricultural production would otherwise be at serious risk.
"But it also reflects our view that there is an urgent need for further improvements in the way 1080 is used.
Exemplary controls of aerial 1080 poison drops in Wairarapa had led the way to a tightening of rules over use of the pesticide across New Zealand, Greater Wellington medical officer of health Stephen Palmer said last year. The Graf brothers event at Parkvale on Wednesday starts at 7.30pm at a cost of $15 a head and the entry fee proceeds would help finance "the new movie highlighting the destruction being wrought on the flora and fauna in our mountains and forests by the use of aerial 1080".