Cairns: Messengers in Stone

Cairns is a book about cairns. Unfortunately, that's all it is: each chapter reads like a disparate work that's only thematically related to the rest of the text. Additionally, the author has a nasty habit of spouting inspiring words about cairn building and what cairns mean, except - in most places - visitors are not supposed to build cairns for a variety of reasons:"Researchers in Australia have found that when people move rocks they can have a negative impact on reptiles. In particular, Jonathan Webb and Rick Shine of the University of Sydney have spent many years studying the broad-headed snake and have found that removal of loose surface rocks has contributed to driving down the snakes’ numbers to the point that it is listed as endangered in New South Wales. Broad-heads hide out for much of the day under rocks or in crevices. As with cairns, these retreats allow the nocturnal snakes to achieve a thermal optimum. Velvet geckos, the main food source of broad-heads, have similar habits. Shine and Webb’s work shows that people who take rocks away from the natural setting cause harm in part because they operate on the Goldilocks principle, choosing stones neither too big nor too thin, which robs the snakes of their ideal thermoregulating stones...Removing stones can disturb lichens and mosses, which have grown in protected spots that provide water and sunshine. Vascular plants face similar challenges, often congregating around a water source at the edge of a rock or cairn. And, as I noted earlier, walking off-trail to get that special rock for a cairn can damage biological soil crusts and fragile alpine plants. As to their use by animals, undisturbed rocks fit the landscape like a jigsaw puzzle and form protected crevices that keep out predators and debris and keep in moisture. Few cairns achieve such intricacy. Webb told me that he supposed that “many species of reptiles defend territories; hence, if you remove twenty rocks to build one cairn, you might create sub-standard habitat for one reptile, but the remaining nineteen reptiles will be homeless.” One of his PhD students discovered what happens to many of the reptiles when humans remove their rocks—predatory birds eat them."- From Cairns: Messengers in Stone, Chapter 3: The Ecology of CairnsOn a similar note, there are a number of local campaigns in the eastern United States against cairn building/rock stacking with the goal of protecting habitat for salamanders and other aquatic creatures, so this is far from a ecological concern limited to Australia."Geological Survey’s Hawaiian Volcano Observatory condemned the practice [of rock stacking]. Visitors to Hawaii Volcanoes National Park were prying boulders off of lava flows and disturbing and destroying scientific evidence. “If this practice is not stopped,” said the USGS in its Volcano Watch newsletter, “our grandchildren may only be able to experience rock piles—and that’s a story no one would be proud to pass on. To paraphrase an often-repeated slogan, just say ‘no’ to rock piles.” Collecting and piling up stones didn’t just damage geologic evidence; as respected community leader Kupuna Pele Hanoa told a local newspaper, it was “akin to sacrilege.” Because many sites sacred to Native Hawaiians dotted the national park, she called the rock piles a desecration of Native culture. Rangers at Yosemite National Park also face an epidemic of stacked stone. Some “rock gardens” contain hundreds of short stacks of rocks, as well as stacks in trees and stacks towering more than six feet tall. A recent one-page handout for park visitors addresses the environmental and safety issues and appeals to people’s aesthetic concerns: “Places like Yosemite were preserved to protect natural processes and views of natural landscapes, not as showcases for free-form public art.” ...To many, erecting personal cairns, whether to mark a route or for some more philosophical reason, is the equivalent of graffiti—an unneeded, self-indulgent blight on the natural landscape."- From Cairns: Messengers in Stone, Chapter 8: Stacking StonesHowever, the author's occasional admonishments against visitor cairn building/rock stacking are lost of the breeze of his fervent rhapsodizing about cairn building. He even shares stories where the takeaway seems to be 'don't knock down visitor-made cairns because it might upset the builders,' even though earlier in the book he shared a story where the teller took great joy in destroying cairns that had erroneously led him off trail.Visitor made cairns/rock stacks can damage the environment, confuse hikers (leading to people getting lost and all the attendant dangers of that state), and generally destroy of the aesthetic of the natural world that people go into nature to experience. While the informational part of this book was ok, it was also unclear, didn't transition well, and had not uniting theme. I also feel that the author's focus on the philosophy of cairn building/rock stacking didn't do enough to explain why NOT to do that and to discourage people from doing so when they visit natural places.

Not what I was expecting

I picked cairns as the guiding theme for an event and this gem of a book is a wonderful treasure of history, meaning, use and geography. All you ever need or want to know about cairns!

I read a review of this book in our paper, and it sounded interesting. I bought it as a gift for a friend that back packs & hikes. He said he really liked it!

Wonderful easy reading book. A great read or purchase for that hiker in the family. Factual text, but is also interesting.

Excellent book, arrived well-packaged, no shipping damage. Interesting subject to be on the lookout for, when walking in nature. I need to make some in my yard!

understanding zen stones, etc. very helpful

good