Sadly, there seems to be a need for some people to leave behind some form of a mark that says to the rest of the world “I was here” like someone might care. I don’t understand graffiti spray painted on bridges, I don’t understand the need to paint a rock in the middle of a river (I drive past one every day), I don’t understand carving your name in a tree in the woods, and I certainly don’t understand the need to stack stones in a stream. This past weekend I found the mother of all stone stack collections in a State Forest here in Pennsylvania. This group of people removed nearly every stone that they could physically move from a section of a wild trout stream. Some were stacked while others were piled along the stream banks. This took a lot of time and thoughtless effort. This is effing wrong! This practice destroys habitat for wild trout other fish species and the macroinvertebrate life forms that live in our streams. When you visit these places think about “Leave No Trace”. Make sure the next visitor to an area finds something remarkable, natural, and pristine. Take a picture or two, take away memories and leave nothing behind but your footprints. I reported this to the state and hopefully the folks that did this are caught. Till then … www.ramsayflies.com

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