[ABC News 31 July 2009] Farmers in the New South Wales south-east have called for land protection levies to be used exclusively to fight the spread of the noxious pant fireweed. The motion was carried at yesterday's New South Wales Farmers Association annual conference in Sydney. Property owners in four Livestock Health and Pest Authority areas on the State's coast want their levies to be quarantined in a bid to fund research to eliminate the evasive weed. Noel Watson from the South Coast branch and Zone 11 delegate says fireweed could cripple Australian agriculture if left unchecked. "We want to retain that money for just one year from four wards only," he said. "It now ranges from the Atherton Tablelands right down into Victoria, Cooma, Canberra and there is no one that can put a break on it. "That's why we're so desperate for biological control."