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I'm a big nature lover, so I'm not only picking up trash when I go camping/hiking. When I see these stacks, I usually dismantle them manually, tossing stones in separate directions to blend in to the surroundings. I find them a lot near creek beds and streams, so it's obvious it was a photographic opportunity for some influencer.

If they are actual cairns (trail markers), I leave them be. They are more identifiable with obvious weathering and growth around them. They're usually constructed with larger rocks so that they are more visible and endure the tests of time.

Stuart Cox, a British hiker who goes by the online name The Peak District Viking

I just don't trust anyone who uses Viking in their name in 2025. The Viking/white supremacy connection is way too strong

I saw park rangers doing this up at rainier, I shouldv'e asked why!

And even if they put them back where they found them after they've snapped their pictures, he says moving them at all can disrupt an ecosystem's balance.

So he admits that what he’s doing is actually contributing further to the problem.

Cox admits his approach to conservation is "a bit dramatic" and can rankle feathers. But most people, he says, simply don't know better and are grateful for the education.

"So the message got through."

Indeed, it did! Carry on, sir...

I'd argue, unless you see someone constructing it, or have first hand knowledge that it's modern construction, leave it alone. There would be a non-zero chance of it being a legitimate cairn.

Otherwise what will happen are well meaning morons knocking down legitimate structures.

The decorative structures, he says, are destroying local archaeology, damaging trail systems and disrupting wildlife.

Yeah nah. The paper that is quoted for the "disrupting wildlife" thing is about river modification that destroys egg laying spots. Obviously if you accidentally stack stones on an animal or their eggs, then that sucks but its statistically unlikely, especially outside of the water.

Herein, we document mortality of both adult and larval Eastern Hellbender salamanders associated with anthropogenic habitat disturbance (i.e., moving and stacking of rocks to build small dams)

The trail that humans make by walking through nature and the trash they leave is muuuuch more impactful than moving 5 random rocks.

Stone stacks are also often not just "decorative" but used for wayfinding. So by removing them you might cause people to walk into previously undisturbed areas because they dont know where the trail is.

Overdoing it like this might start causing issues, but even that i doubt tbh. If there are this many people moving through an area, then no wildlife is going to come near it anyway.