Two Northland men challenging DOC's right to drop 1080 on Russell State Forest say it needs to show it has consent from Māori and the community.
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Riki Ngakoti and Hayward Brown have applied to the Māori Land Court for an injunction to stop the pesticide drop that's set to happen in the next fortnight.
Auckland opponents of 1080 trying to stop a drop in the Hunua Ranges, have taken their case to the Environment Court.
But Mr Ngakoti said he had sought advice from the Tikanga Māori Law Society and believed the Māori Land Court had jurisdiction.
"There will be arguments by the settlers of New Zealand - our fellow Kiwis - and government officials, that the Department of Conservation manages Crown land. We had that argument from the court when we applied, but we...interpret that land to be Māori customary land."
Mr Ngakoti said he and Mr Brown were not so much anti-1080 as anti-risk and DOC had not provided a forum in which that risk could be publicly evaluated and debated.
"We have tried to do a bit of research but some of the risks we haven't been able to satisfy ourselves about are the effect of 1080 on the environment below the ground... the micro-organisms, the works, the bugs - there hasn't been thorough research."
The Māori Land Court will hold the injunction hearing on Monday in Whangarei.
Meanwhile the lawyer acting for the Auckland 1080 opponents, Sue Grey, said further court challenges to the use of 1080 were inevitable.
"There has been no forum for public conversation and it got much worse last year when the former Minister for the Environment Nick Smith passed...regulations exempting 1080 from all the usual resource consent processes.
"You need resource consent if you want to extend your fence - but DOC doesn't have to get a consent or have any public consultation for dropping poison into public areas."
That had led to a build-up of pressure because people had genuine concerns and nowhere to air them, she said.
DOC has linked the anti-1080 spam campaign on Facebook to threats against its staff, based on misinformation about the toxin
But Ms Grey said she stood by her advice to 1080 opponents to use social media to promote their cause.
"I would never advocate any threats or violence. My view is that the court processes are there and we need to use them and that's what I encourage my clients to do."
Ms Grey said there had been a lot of allegations made about threats but she had her doubts.
"I've just seen an OIA response from the police and it seems that very few of those alleged incidents did happen," she said.
"There seems to be a pattern of exaggeration of these threats."
However DOC and Forest and Bird sources told RNZ there had been very serious threats made and staff were worried.
