I walk along the West Walker River with my dog. I pick up trash, fish sometimes, sometimes bring my watercolor paints. And I build little cairns - rocks the size of a fist or smaller. I've always loved the game of Blockhead. So shoot me.
But really - the climate is going to kill everything and people have hissy fits over a temporary pile of rocks? Yeah - having spent many years looking under rocks for insects to fish with I know they live beneath rocks. I guess collecting your own bait is going to be a criminal act now, eh? Better go buy me some Power Bait like everyone else does. The sparkly kind. That smears on the rocks, Florescent colors too! It lasts for nearly ever!
I think what flavors the whole rock cairn = bad thing for me is that the initial argument is almost always something along the lines of it "ruining their experience" or "the scenery" with the concern for the environment second. Here is a quote from an opinion piece in High Country News:
"A stack of rocks left by someone who preceded us on the trail does nothing more than remind us that other people were there before us."
I am pretty sure that anywhere you might go someone has been there before you. I mean - trail, anyone? Knock down the cairn if your delusion is that important to your "experience" (hey - maybe pick up some trash and clean up some fire rings too! - and carry out your #@$%^%& toilet paper) ) but then try real hard to get over it. When I read an article (and the comments) insisting that rock stacking be made a chargeable offense I know the human race has entirely lost the plot.