Frustrated hiker sparks heated debate after calling out common park activity: 'Stop doing that'

A Redditor had a simple PSA for visitors who stack stones at beaches and parks: Knock it off. They shared a photo of a natural area covered with rock piles to the r/mildlyinfuriating subreddit, sparking a conversation about the practice.

"Stop doing that please," they instructed. "Stone stacking is bad for [the] environment."

Not everyone on the sub knew why, and one user asked them to "please elaborate." Fortunately, a couple of users jumped in.

"You take away the hiding spots for animals in the area, especially with a huge amount of piles as seen here," a commenter explained. 

Another poster added that "ants will have to cross the battlefield in the open and are more vulnerable to air attacks from the butterflies."

Another user wrote, "it also messes up water runoff terribly," while yet another Redditor pointed out that if you move all the stones, there's nowhere for water to collect.

These stone stacks or rock cairns are actually illegal to build on your own in some national parks. They are often used as a navigational tool, and it can cause confusion if they take hikers off-course, per the National Park Service.

Another problematic consequence is, as users pointed out, impromptu stone stacking can cause erosion. It can also create a significant threat to the surrounding animals that create homes or hiding spots out of the nooks or bottom sides of rocks, not to mention the plants that could be harmed when you rearrange things.

The Guardian noted there is room for debate on this topic. 

Accordingly, one poster argued, "I'm sure the environment can handle some stacked stones."

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Another user posed, "I have no idea how this could be in any way worse than basically anything else you could do at that place?"

"One stone stack is not going to do much, but in this case, absolutely," a Redditor countered. "Depriving an area of any cover for small animals can decimate the food chain in quite a large radius leaving an ecosystem defunct."

Even if the ecosystem and erosion effects weren't huge, there are compelling reasons not to make your mark all over a natural area and instead to leave no trace.

"It does annoy me to see this kind of thing," a user revealed. "Nothing like getting out into nature to get away from humanity only to see humanity leaving its mark wherever it goes."

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