CONSIDER

Stacking rocks in the river creates damage to the river environment

By Greg Lowell Redstone Review

LYONS – At first, it looks pretty – river rocks stacked upon one another, their arrangement defying gravity. Meticulously balanced, they look like they’re glued together. Quite a work of art – until you consider the damage this activity does to the riparian environment.

Every kid (or young-at-heart adult) who goes to a river or creek invariably ends up playing with rocks – making dams and pools and seeing who can throw a stone across the river or make the biggest splash. And then there’s those who create elaborate manmade hoodoos in the water, then leave them for all to admire.

How can such a simple, aesthetically pleasing activity be damaging? It turns out these river cairns destroy aquatic macroinvertebrates and fish habitat, displace fish eggs and young fry and kill the bugs that trout and other fish depend on. When an aspiring “artist” takes rocks out of the water it damages the riverine environment, and when they stack and leave to dry those rocks it kills hundreds of macroinvertebrates.

If you don’t believe this, the next time you pick up a submerged river rock, examine it and you’ll find dozens of tiny (or not so tiny) nymphs, eggs or, in the case of the St. Vrain River, caddis fly homes made of twigs and pebbles. River rocks are generally a stable habitat for these macroinvertebrates in the quick water environment. These rocks and their nooks and crannies are places where an insect holds on, hides and feeds until it’s ready to pupate. Even more important, river rocks provide habitat for young fish and crustaceans like crayfish.

“Aquatic insects live years of their life on river rocks,” said Deb Hummel, Lefthand Watershed Center scientist. “Fish seek the cracks and crevices between river rocks as a hideout and place to rest. Each rock in the river could be the world of, or at least a key part in the life of, an aquatic insect or fish.”

Some national parks, like the Great Smoky Mountains and Acadia, as well as the U.S. Forest Service, have signage instructing people not to build cairns in the river. Close by, Rocky Mountain National Park also discourages rock stacking, both on land and in streams and rivers.

“It impacts the natural and undeveloped qualities of wilderness character,” said Kyle Patterson, RMNP Public Affairs Officer. “Our staff will remove them; otherwise, others see the stacks, they may think it’s okay.”

Conversely, the City of Boulder’s official website celebrates such “stone-balancing artists” along Boulder Creek and advises on the best places to “catch these artists at work.” This seems an odd encouragement for an environmentally conscious city.

Erosion and changing the river’s current is another effect of moving river rocks, particularly removing them from the shore. A child building a little dam just offshore will do some, but little, harm so long as the rocks and stone are removed when they leave. But it seems some people just can’t resist redirecting moving water. Case in point is the 20-foot long dam laboriously constructed by a kayaker above the October Hole in Lyons this past spring. I watched in amazement as the man hoisted soccer ball-size and larger rocks from the shore to build a dam that effectively cut off a third of the river and channeled the water in a totally different manner. All he lacked was a backhoe. I’m not sure what he had in mind with this construction, but this kind of wholesale change to a river changes the immediate area and destroys the sensitive environment.

I guess the Town of Lyons and the Federal government could have saved the millions spent on restoring the St. Vrain in the wake of the 2013 flood by hiring this guy, who clearly knows better than experts like DHM Design and S2O Design and Engineering, who were among the contractors who meticulously and scientifically restored

the St. Vrain in the wake of the 2013 flood. Beyond the ecological damage, this rock piling violates the familiar outdoor ethic of “Leave No Trace,” which holds that outdoor recreationists should leave a scene as natural or more natural than they found it. Stacking rocks or rechanneling streams might not be as bad as spraypainting a boulder or carving your initials into a tree, but Lowell then again in a stream, it’s much worse ecologically. Author Robyn Martin in a recent High Country News article said it best: “A stack of rocks is an unnecessary marker of humanity, like leaving graffiti – no different than finding trash that a previous traveler didn’t pack out, or a forgotten water bottle. Pointless cairns are simply pointless reminders of the human ego.” Admittedly rock stacking is a minor issue, but our Colorado rivers endure all kinds of insults: gas spills, wildfire ash run-off, drought and the manmade fluctuations of irrigation ditches. And although rivers are constantly changing during high and low water, we should let natural processes make those changes and not add a damaging practice to the mix that stacks the odds against riparian life already under stress.

Greg Lowell, is a Lyons Town Board Trustee and serves as a liaison to the Ecology Advisory Board. He lives in Lyons.

Jonelle Tucker

303-902-6250 jtucker@realtor.com www.tuckergroupinc.com

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