The practice of stone stacking, which has been gaining ground in wild spaces, is now under attack by environmentalists. The city of Boulder, CO actually briefly declared stone-stacking a jailable offense in an attempt to stop a local artist. And there are hikers who take glee in kicking over any stack they come across. I have built a few in the middle of a riverbed in VT. Since it was fall, my sister-in-law and I had no illusions that our cairns would last beyond the winter ice floes. The other was on my friend's lakefront. I expected if they didn't knock it down after my weekend visit, the spring rising of the water or a deer or dog would knock it down. It actually lasted a year or so, and then all the stacked rocks fell back down on the rock-filled waterfront. So what's the fuss about a stack of stones?
Stacking stones is certainly not a new practice. People have always used them to mark trails and they were used to mark graves in the old days. People have stacked stones as a spiritual practice, finding zen in the balancing of rocks. But environmentalists are concerned that lifting rocks out of soil will create erosion and with the practice becoming more ubiquitous, especially out west, it's being seen as akin to graffiti in nature. We all go into the woods for the 'wilderness' experience and somehow think we're the only people who have "passed this way." We go to retreat from civilization and rock stacks are unnatural...they are so obviously man-made. I think that's the real reason people are starting to object to them...not erosion. It's a fair point.
I'll probably still make the occasional stack, but in a place where I know it's only temporary because nature will knock it down at some point. I don't know if I'll thwack other people's misguided stacks...
Stacking stones is certainly not a new practice. People have always used them to mark trails and they were used to mark graves in the old days. People have stacked stones as a spiritual practice, finding zen in the balancing of rocks. But environmentalists are concerned that lifting rocks out of soil will create erosion and with the practice becoming more ubiquitous, especially out west, it's being seen as akin to graffiti in nature. We all go into the woods for the 'wilderness' experience and somehow think we're the only people who have "passed this way." We go to retreat from civilization and rock stacks are unnatural...they are so obviously man-made. I think that's the real reason people are starting to object to them...not erosion. It's a fair point.
I'll probably still make the occasional stack, but in a place where I know it's only temporary because nature will knock it down at some point. I don't know if I'll thwack other people's misguided stacks...