It's got very little or nothing in my case to do with having a green bone or going with the green angle!
It's got everything to do with what the NSW regulations/rules/guidelines state & also the conditions of the NSW State Forests permit.
I can only offer my opinion based on my experience, which is in Queensland - each state has it's own legislation, sometimes they differ from one another in the extreme.
On re-reading I note that people seem to refer to fossicking in state forests - this is STRICTLY PROHIBITED in Queensland. It has not been made this way by people digging holes in state forests and not backfilling them - it has
never been legal here to my knowledge.
I am referring generally to what the QLD government calls "Designated Fossicking Areas". These areas are wholly or partly owned and overseen by the government for the express purpose of recreational fossicking and in certain cases depending on the area, small scale mining claims. The Anakie/Rubyvale gemfield contains a mix of both plus larger-scale commercial machinery mining.
It could be that the legislation has changed and I'm not up to date but I'm not aware of any requirement to backfill on a purpose designated fossicking area in Queensland. If there is I've never seen it enforced. I'm glad of this because it would make identifying un-worked ground all the more difficult. In some places it's fairly identifiable but in other places even having years of experience may not be much help. If you're just out to enjoy a day out in the bush digging holes then it may not bother you if it turns out that you're wasting your time and energy digging previously worked ground but I prefer not to. Digging is starting to get harder as it is.
Parts of the Anakie field designated fossicking areas are also open for the pegging of small miners claims which are regularly bought and sold - if there was a requirement to backfill and level everything before selling then you would be mad to even consider buying - how would you know how much of the ground has already been worked? (you still need to tidy up, remove all materials and claim pegs if you cancel/hand back a claim). Fair enough, this is probably tangental to the precise issue at hand here.
Birds flock into my yard after I mow it looking for an easy feed too. I suppose Tim Low will give the nod to mowing down natural grasslands too soon because the birds like it. roll
Yes, this is how I felt when I first heard it too at
wildlife park in north QLD. However, I eventually came to accept what Rob Bredl, Tim Lowe and other field biologists and professionals have to say on the matter as scientific fact. How do you know the "natural grasslands" are even natural? The tussock flats in New Zealand look natural but they were in fact created by the Maori hundreds of years before the arrival of Europeans - the ground still contains many hewn tree stump remains. The vegetation patterns of this country also were already heavily the product of human hand (firestick farming) by the time Europeans arrived.
One example would be the small patch of rainforest conservation area just north of Yepoon a couple of hours drive from where I live. To call it "ancient" would be highly misleading, it's very obvious that it's quite young. Walking through it, it strikes you that the huge emergent trees that are dotted all through it and tower above it are not rainforest species - they are
gum trees. All the same species (bloodwoods), all the same size (enormous, far bigger than any of the rainforest species around them) and some of them have hollows lined with
charcoal - you don't get fires in rainforests! My guess is that the rainforest species in the area were restricted to stands along protected steep creek banks and steep gullies in the range behind, kept at bay by firestick farming. The Europeans forced the indigenous inhabitants off their land and the non-fire tollerant species had a chance to advance.
I spent a few years doing volunteer work at our local herbarium and accompanying other volunteers and park rangers on surveys in local national parks. I recall a slightly heated debate between one of them main herbarium members and a park ranger - the herbarium member insisted there should never be any burning while the ranger argued that it has been proven necessary to maintain what existed there previously....created by the hand of man.
Things are not always as they seem!
My apologies Pickledeel, I see on more thorough reading that you're referring specifically to NSW. The activity of fossicking in state forests here in QLD has always been strictly illegal and other fossicking legislation and norms will no doubt differ as well. Others will be better placed to answer your questions.
Cheers