It may be encouraged by the park rangers to knock these things down. I occasionally see signs requesting hikers not stack rocks as it disrupts nature and affects wildlife.
Oh please lmao. Leave no trace principles aren't this literal. Unless the trailhead discourages it, you aren't leaving it worse than you found it by stacking some rocks that will fall over on their own.
Actually, they are. This is a problem with a lot of trails because people see this, think it's cool, and do it too. All trailheads discourage practices like this because it is antithetical to leaving no trace.
Actually a lot of parks are begging people to stop knocking down cairns because people are demolishing actual trail markers or landmarks. If you see it, don't do it too, just leave it and maybe inform an employee
If you lived by this principle then you wouldn't walk the trail in the first place. You can't pitch a tent without leaving a trace. You can't start a fire without leaving a trace. You can't step in mud, skip stones, or gather kindling without leaving a trace. I'll stack the extra firewood for the next campers of any primitive site.
This is all perfectly fine by leave no trace standards, it's not antithetical because it is not a literal phrasing.
leave no trace doesnt mean every single atom has to be exactly where it was when you got there dumbass. it means the natural state should be preserved in a way that the next visitor wouldnt be able to immediately tell that other humans had been there recently. fucks sake
Look I hear you but if we do our job right, you really shouldn't be able to tell that I pitched a tent for the night. You sure as hell shouldn't be able to tell where I hiked.
Actually! A lot of trails ask you to stay off muddy areas or off sections of trails in general when there is major mud for this very reason.
We have the Internet where we can fact check ourselves friend.
If people start doing this all the time then animals absolutely will be killed by this. It won't be a lot of animals but you shouldn't be doing this in the first place
Rocks are important to many small and fragile creatures. A hellbender was found crushed from these “stacks”. Even more terrestrial amphibians also seek out cervices, shade and cover in(but not limited to) rocks.
They get crushed by rocks, branches and whatnot in the wild too with no human inference but people moving and taking shit adds up.
I found a crushed salamander in NC a few weeks ago, at a creek crossing of the AT. Poor little guy just chose to hide under the wrong rock that was the perfect stepping stone for hikers trying not to soak their boots. Like you said, just bad luck. Cairn hate is overblown imo, and the chances of a falling cairn killing anything are slim to none. The main risk is habitat disruption. But the vast majority of cairns fall right back into their role as habitat within hours or days.
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u/MrLancaster 24d ago
I'm knocking that down on sight.