My earliest survey jobs, we never had any lath. A branch would be cut and milled with a machete. The top would be pointed and plumbed over the point (typically a somewhat stouter branch driven as a hub, with a nail) as a backsight.
I usually do not leave a lath behind after I complete ties from a hub unless I know that I will return to that hub to set monuments or stake on the boundary.
When they are referenced well I don't leave a lath at all.
Too many visible working points get clients confused at the beginning of a project, so I leave very little visible lath and flag.
They get used on many traverse layouts and projects until they begin to fall apart.
The only time I use lath for backsite is when traversing close to a boundary without any fence or markings. Then I will come back with tpost and place along the boundary line and take the lath to use on the next project.
Many years ago we would put a variety of chemicals in a 50 gallon drum (Penta, diesel, coal oil, and other hazardous liquids that explode) and soak the lath and ash hub stakes (sawed-off pointed end of broom handles) in them until they were completely saturated and then pull them out and hang them over the barrel on expanded metal and let them drip dry back into the barrel.
That would make them lasts for years guarding monuments and showing location of boundaries.
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Yes, this photo was staged, in my front yard. I don't leave lath at random points either...
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We left a lath once, stacked for a sight at the quarter corner in the middle of a gravel road. Thinking that these types of sight's never last too long, we didn't think much about it. Well it was a Tuesday, and there just happened to be an election that day and this lady, coming back from a victory party spots this thing sticking up in the road; panics, and drives into the ditch. We never left a sight in the road again...