Hold on just a second! Now I was up there last Saturday and walked through. Those holes are on the little feeder creek, not in Coker creek at Doc Rogers. The next big rain will fix it. There is no permanent damage there. No one even goes to Doc Rogers except gold panners, surely to God they have seen a hole or two.
Now as to this hole business, every year thousands and thousands of holes are dug and left open in the forest floor by Ginseng and ramp hunters. No one says a word about those holes or where they are dug. In fact the very reason they are dug is to destroy forest vegetation. Face the real facts, the extreme left don't like gold mining, period. Supposed damage is just the excuse to stop you. For a hundred years, people dug as much and where they wanted and the forest is still there, your not going to hurt it with a sluice and shovel or a 3 inch dredge.
Now if you want to seek MORE regulation and get state permits for dredges, fine, I don't care. But this notion of even getting numbers put on sluice boxes is not a good thing at all! Leave the edicts of the 1872 mining law alone.
If it's motorized, fine, but I am not interested in paying a fee or registering a sluice and shovel! Your gonna wind up like Br' rabbit and tar baby. The more you swing at this left wing bureauracy, the more damage you will do to yourself.
