The Motherline

The Motherline Contact information, map and directions, contact form, opening hours, services, ratings, photos, videos and announcements from The Motherline, Performing Arts, PO Box 2526, Cave Junction, OR.

The Motherline engenders a culture of repair and restoration by empowering women to cultivate a place based, planet protective economy through arts, agriculture, youth education and inter-generational connection.

Here is why nobody should ever put trash out in the woods: the animals are literally eating it. We found all of these t...
08/23/2026

Here is why nobody should ever put trash out in the woods: the animals are literally eating it. We found all of these trash items in two recently dumped sites. But the animals found them first and ate disturbing amounts of the plastic! Also at one of the sites we found s**t from a cougar had eaten an entire diaper, and at a different spot, s**t from a cougar that ate a whole plastic produce bag. We need to properly handle all of our trash, and never leave it where animals can get to it! And also this is why its important to pick up trash out in nature, as soon as you can, whenever you see it.

Credit for the idea of collecting a display of animal-eaten plastic goes to the fabulously inspiring film about The Washed Ashore Project, which we recently screened at the Southern Oregon Guild of Artists and Artisans with Cave Junction Farmers' Market. It is time to re-think our trash, and especially time to do better at keeping it out of our wild spaces, like forests, rivers, and oceans.

Come help with the ongoing cleanup here in the Illinois Valley, at the next Clean Sweep:
https://www.facebook.com/share/1EhX88D58H/
This one will be back at Kerby Mainline, and it's super exciting because we will collect our "half-millionth" pound of trash that day! It's a milestone that is both inspiring and tragic at the same time, because that's a lot of trash for one valley to have had, and a lot of it's been there a long time, slowly getting incorporated into the bodies of the wildlife, the soils, and the waters. Enough already!

Learn more about the Clean Sweep, join the Motherline, or donate:
www.TheMotherline.org/Clean-Sweep

A few of us gathered for a cleanup at one special (near the river) site yesterday, and it was frustrating because almost...
08/22/2026

A few of us gathered for a cleanup at one special (near the river) site yesterday, and it was frustrating because almost everything we picked up could have been recycled (for free!) instead of dumped in the woods.

90% of what we pick up at our Clean Sweeps is recyclable, if I had to guess. Recycling is free and there are far more things on the list of recyclables than there used to be! A motivated person could literally, truly, cut their trash bill to nearly nothing, by never putting recycling in the trash. We'd be so excited to never find a swath of single-use plastic from household trash dumped out in the woods, ever again!

If you don't know what you can recycle, here are some resources. First, Southern Oregon Sanitation makes posts with updates about recycling. Also this post here includes two graphics from the SOS website, of what you can recycle curbside, and what you can recycle at the Kerby Transfer Station. Check the lists, there are more options than there used to be!

If you aren't sure how to dispose of a given item, you can look it up in a tool on the SOS website and it will tell you exactly where it goes:
https://sosanitation.com/residential/garbage-pickup/

It's notable that in the curbside recycling, you can put all kinds of plastic: planting pots, buckets, bottles, tubs - this is fairly new. You can also put in chunks of metal for recycling, up to 10 lbs, so old pots and pans, broken car parts, etc.

Some key items that aren't show in the graphic but you might want to know how to get rid of properly are:
- Used motor oil (can go curbside next to your recycling cart but make sure to call SOS first, or take it to Kerby)

A few additional things can be taken to the Redwood Transfer Station, and it's enough things to make the extra trip worth on occasion:
- Plastic bags!! (like grocery bags, produce bags, and amazon mailers)
- Aluminum foil and plates
- Shredded paper
- Alkaline batteries (but there is a fee. And they don't take rechargeable batteries)
- e-Waste (laptop, iPod, tablet, television)

Staples Office Supply in GP takes used cell phones and rechargeable batteries.

Tires should be saved and taken to the Cave Junction Annual Free Tire Recycling Day, every year in late May.

Mattresses can be recycled for free at Thrift Right Now in Grants Pass (and they are working on a Selma location, too, hopefully coming soon).

Food waste should never, ever go in the trash. Food waste needs to go back into the soil, by composting, not into the landfill to mingle with toxins while emitting lots of methane.

What else even is there to put in the trash, if all these things can be recycled?

The other 10% that we find in the woods just isn't recycling YET. If they can recycle mattresses, then hopefully couches will be next. If they can recycle so many types of plastic, then hopefully the light dep grow tarps will be next.

Let's recycle everything we can: because it's the only sane path forward on a planet that is finite. There are only so many raw materials, and only so much space we're willing to give to landfills. Recycling is the key. Doesn't a zero-waste future sound fabulous?

And meanwhile, come help us finish cleaning up the legacy trash (and a little bit of recent trash) at our next Clean Sweep! September 12 at Kerby Mainline!
https://www.facebook.com/share/1EhX88D58H/

To join the Motherline, or for more information, or to donate:
www.TheMotherline.org/Clean-Sweep

Motherline is going to be hanging out with Caveman 4-Wheelers on Sunday, at their Community Outreach event, and we hope ...
08/21/2026

Motherline is going to be hanging out with Caveman 4-Wheelers on Sunday, at their Community Outreach event, and we hope you'll come and say Hi! The Caveman group does a ton of cleanup of trash in the woods, plus helps with vehicle recoveries, and we are super excited to find ways to partner with them in upcoming cleanup work.
https://www.facebook.com/share/1D2AE3DKBq/

The more people that are out exploring and enjoying the woods, the less space there is for people who want to do secret things like dumping trash! And if we can all support each other in our stewardship/cleanup efforts, imagine the synergy! Motherline has really appreciated the IV off-roading community's help with the Clean Sweep project, and we look forward to expanded collaboration with the Cavemen 4-Wheelers!
Jimmy’s Classic Drive Through, 515 NE E street GP, Sunday August 23, late morning till ?

And then don't forget to come to the next Clean Sweep on September 12! We'll hit the half-a-million-pounds mark, which is a fairly ginormous ridiculous amount of trash for one community to have picked up out of the woods!! More information about the Clean Sweep:
www.TheMotherline.org/Clean-Sweep

Do you know of abandoned RVs in the woods?The Clean Sweep is going to do a push for vehicle and RV removal this fall (af...
08/17/2026

Do you know of abandoned RVs in the woods?

The Clean Sweep is going to do a push for vehicle and RV removal this fall (after fire season). We're getting the RVs that we know about tested for asbestos very soon, and I want to make sure we get them all!

Here's our list of known RVs and vehicles. If you know of one that is not on this list, could you please let us know?
www.TheMotherline.org/Vehicles

Please let us know ASAP if you know of more RVs! Reply to this message, send us a DM, or contact us through the website. Coordinates (or a pin on a map) and a photo are ideal, but otherwise just send a description with very good details of where to find the RV.

We think we can make them go away, but only if we know about them!

September 12 is the Clean Sweep's Half-a-Million Pounds Day! This month we’ll hit what feels like a huge milestone: the ...
08/16/2026

September 12 is the Clean Sweep's Half-a-Million Pounds Day!
This month we’ll hit what feels like a huge milestone: the cleanup of an epic half-a-million pounds. Who can even believe we would find that much trash! Wow! We are so grateful to this community for coming out to volunteer, over and over again, to do this work of re-naturalizing our woods and getting the decades of messes cleaned up, for a much- needed reset!

This month, we’ll have the Hub back on Kerby Mainline Road, just like old times. We’ll haul trash from a few Mainline side roads that we only recently found (!! so many roads!!), as well as sending teams out to Onion Mountain, Tennessee Pass, McMullen Creek, Draper Valley, and Crooks Creek. Kerby Mainline is a good central Hub for finishing the dispersed remnants that we need to clean up!

Meet at:
Kerby Mainline Road, on the left, along the way to the transfer station (you can’t miss the hoopla!)
Cleanup from 9 am till 1 pm
Bring gloves, water bottles, and sturdy shoes
Coffee, donuts, snacks, lunch, and comradery always provided!
Plus ice cream, too, to celebrate our half-a-million-pounds benchmark!

Please bring a pickup truck to haul trash in, if you can! And if the high gas prices are making you hesitate, we’ll have gas gift cards from the Chevron for the pickup drivers!

Come out and spend some time in the woods with friends and neighbors, possibly checking out beautiful areas you’ve never seen before, while re-naturalizing our wild spaces. The cleanup events are a wonderful way to spend time in nature and in community!

Some of the spots are far-flung and will require lots of driving, so we will need as many pickup trucks as possible! And if you bring a truck, straps and a net and/or tarp are usually a good idea.

Come help us turn these "befores" into "afters" on September 12! If you haven't been to a Clean Sweep before, you'll be surprised at how much fun you have - we promise!

To join The Motherline, or for more info, or to donate:
www.TheMotherline.org/Clean-Sweep

https://www.facebook.com/share/1CwxyVeh59/

How can there even be so much trash?Once again I didn't think there would be enough trash in the area to fill the dumpst...
08/09/2026

How can there even be so much trash?
Once again I didn't think there would be enough trash in the area to fill the dumpster - and again we quickly overfilled it and had to take overflow loads to the transfer station! What would a Clean Sweep be without an overstuffed dumpster to show for it! (Just for the record, there were more couches than I'd thought. They take a lot of space.) But we did finish all the spots on the list in the Holland area, which was really satisfying.

Thank you to the Holland Store for letting us clog up their parking lot all morning, and to the Illinois Valley Community Development Organization for their partnership on the event, and especially for sending their photographer to help capture the moments (see the epic before/after pair that Jon took - the first two pictures of this post). Thank you to Trillium Bakery for the donuts, Coffee Heaven for the coffee, and Sugar Pine Dine for the breakfast and lunch! Thank you to Jeepers Ravine for cleaning up the messy loads of scrap metal. And most importantly, thank you to the great turnout of hard working volunteers! This community really cares about getting the trash out of the woods, and keeps showing up in great numbers, in the heat, to work hard on Saturday mornings. We appreciate everyone so much!

We are literally going to get ALL the trash on public lands in the Illinois River watershed cleaned up - we have two more cleanup events this year, and that's about what it will take! Stay tuned for locations for the September 12 and October 10 events.

To join the Motherline, learn more, or donate:
www.TheMotherline.org/Clean-Sweep

Last minute trash scouting = surprise bonus of the best panoramic views ever!This viewpoint above the Holland end of the...
08/08/2026

Last minute trash scouting = surprise bonus of the best panoramic views ever!

This viewpoint above the Holland end of the valley shows Bear Creek Vineyard, the straight dash of Holland Loop between the store and Robinson Corner, and all of the Holland area. The neighborhood we'll be cleaning up in, tomorrow!
(Spoiler alert: we found no trash way up in that viewpoint area and unfortunately we're not sending anybody there tomorrow. :-) )

Join us in the morning at the Clean Sweep - 8 am at the Holland Store:
https://www.facebook.com/share/1Bxenbovjo/
Donuts by , Coffee from , and lunch by Pine Dine - and the work is it's own reward in the first place; what more could we ever want?

And at 3:00, with plenty of time for a shower after all that trash cleanup in the heat, join us with our friends Cave Junction Farmers' Market at the Southern Oregon Guild of Artists and Artisans for a free screening of the film "Washed Ashore" - with all the details of what they're doing with the marine trash to make the fabulous upcycled trash sculptures in Bandon!
https://www.facebook.com/share/19MsnK3aPv/

THIS Saturday 8/8, after Clean Sweep - August 8 from 8am-Noon, our friends Cave Junction Farmers' Market & The Motherli...
08/07/2026

THIS Saturday 8/8, after Clean Sweep - August 8 from 8am-Noon, our friends Cave Junction Farmers' Market & The Motherline will join us for a Film Screening: Washed Ashore, which is an incredibly inspiring film about the sculptures The Washed Ashore Project makes out of ocean trash in Bandon, OR. The sculptures are huge, well-made, and highlight the impact of trash on marine wildlife. Imagine the possibilities for what we could make here in Southern Oregon! Come learn how to do it, and maybe be inspired to make something great for the 11th Annual Upcycle Art & Furniture Contest, coming up on 9/4!

Join us on Saturday for the Clean Sweep! It's going to be hot - so maybe if enough people come out, we can finish ALL t...
08/07/2026

Join us on Saturday for the Clean Sweep! It's going to be hot - so maybe if enough people come out, we can finish ALL the trash in the Holland area early, before the heat really hits!
There's lots of small trash, plus a few couches and even a boat! The challenge of the day will be to carefully pack it into the dumpster so that we don't overfill it so quickly this time! :-)

Meet at the Holland Store, 7251 Holland Loop, at 8 am.
Coffee, donuts, and snacks provided, and then lunch at noon.
Bring WATER BOTTLEs, gloves, and sturdy shoes. And a pickup truck for hauling trash, if you can!

We already finished the whole south side of the valley. Let's finish the middle section on Saturday, and then in September we can return to the north areas that still need attention!

Can't wait to see you, bright and early with gloves on, on Saturday!

To join the Motherline, or for more information, or to donate:
www.TheMotherline.org/Clean-Sweep

Address

PO Box 2526
Cave Junction, OR
97523

Telephone

+15414158117

Website

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