You better not make a rock pile in the Tahquamenon Falls State Park, and if you see one, knock it down! Or else we'll have less insects!

The Tahquamenon Falls staff has released a video warning tourists to not make a cairn (rock tower) because it's harmful to the flies in the park.

While I'm all about helping out the wildlife, as a long time hiker in the Upper Peninsula, some of the things in this video and the subsequent article in the Detroit Free Press seem odd to me.

The rangers claim there are '100 rock towers in the river', while I've never seen more than one or two at any given time. Even the video only shows three. And they also claim that about half the visitors wade into the river, while again, I've never seen more than one or two.

I'm willing to believe the experts on this one, but when one considers that there are miles of the Tahquamenon River that are undisturbed prior to the park, and that the river doesn't seem to be lacking for flies or rocks, and that it also seems to me there are plenty of places on a rock pile the flies could move on unmolested, this whole ban seems excessive.

But, hey, if they want less cairns, I'll stop building them, and feel shame for the three I've built along the 1000 miles of Lake Superior shoreline.

 

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