“Cairns are a nuanced topic,” Death Valley spokesperson Abby Wines told SFGATE in a statement.
While some of the cairns that mark hiking trails and routes are done by park rangers, most are created “by hikers trying to pay it forward to help other hikers,” Wines told SFGATE. “These cairns are useful and should be left where they are.”
She also said that sometimes cairns are used to mark historic features.
“Cairns were used to mark boundaries of mining claims and land survey points in this area in the late 1800s and early 1900s,” she said. “Now these are helpful for historical archaeologists and should be left in place, just like historic trash around old mining camps should be left in place.”
Wines said that guests should never build cairns but also should avoid knocking them down.
Nooooo 10 rocks are now vertical instead of horizontal. The environment is fucked now
Noooooooo I threw this one piece of trash on the ground the environment is fucked
Noooooooo I dumped one pan of used motor oil on some weeds the environment is fucked
Noooooooo I bought a bitcoin mining rig and doubled my electric bill the environment is fucked
You win, stacking rocks is the same as dumping oil. My mind has been changed
The point is that there are many things that aren't too big of deal if one person does it, but become major problems when a lot of people do it.
Which is a garbage point to make because you're clearly aware that doing this stuff is bad, but justify doing it because other people should stop
Is this akin to the recycling 'we all have to do our part' schtick pushed by the oil companies?
No
Locally, yes, it actually is to some extent after that.
Of course you could choose not to do that but the impulse to be a contrarian asshole is strong, isn't it?
Read the article or shut the fuck up.
Have you read the article?? Which part says they're "fucking up the environment"?
Yeah, you're thinking of a different article. This one doesn't actually say what the impact of building a cairn is, and I am actually curious what the impact is for building cairns from rocks in a (relatively) dry place. The stream-bed perturbation discussion was one thing, and I am curious how much of that applies to this different context.
rocks are essential parts of the habitats of some creatures. disturbing them is disturbing their habitats. do you understand the concept of "leave no trace" at all?
If you were the only human on earth it might be only 10 rocks