Some members of Ruapehu iwi Ngati Rangi want their tribe to withdraw its agreement to 1080 aerial poison operations in the district, Juelle Gilbert says.
She and a small group have organised a petition, asking the iwi to "cease and desist". They plan to present the petition to Ngati Rangi environmental staff on Monday, she said.
Some of this last-minute unrest could have come from an incorrect statement in Monday's Wanganui Chronicle. The iwi did not ask for poison baits to be dropped over water, Ngati Rangi Trust chairman Shar Amner said.
Ngati Rangi's many waterways were precious, he said, and its environmental team put lots of effort into monitoring them.
But he said it was inevitable that some 1080 would get into water during the three TBfree New Zealand operations planned for the next 10 years.