The Motherline

10/12/2026

Clean Sweep Results!
Here is the result from yesterday: I am just fully blown away by how much this community cares about taking care of our woods! I have never seen so many trucks, trailers, and eager cleaner-uppers in one place as what we had yesterday. At least 90 or more people turned out to tackle trash in spots that are becoming increasingly difficult, now that we've picked up all the easy stuff. Tennessee Pass is done, Westside MM 5 is done, Onion Mountain is almost done, McMullen Creek Road is mostly done, more of Reeves Creek is done, a Caves Highway stretch is done, and more!

What strikes me the most is the change in perception. Before we started this Clean Sweep project, I think we all felt like we lived in a valley where nobody cared about the trash in the woods. It was put there by a few bad actors and the majority of us would never dump trash in the woods, but even so, it was too much, the problem didn't seem approachable, and we kind of all thought that we just had a trashed valley that would be trashed forever and that was that.

But now we can clearly see the reality: we do really care. Scores of volunteers will come out, spending Saturday after Saturday, to keep on getting the woods cleaned up and re-naturalized. Hundreds of people have told us how much they appreciate this project and how great the woods are looking. We are literally moving the Illinois Valley away from being THE most trashed area in Oregon, to being the least trashed area in Oregon. And we are not going to let it go back the other direction, because everybody does care so much, and nobody would put up with that at this point.

Thank you, volunteers! Thank you heaven, Trillium Bakery, Caveman 4-Wheelers, Friends of Fall Creek Watershed Inc., BLM, and Josephine County Solid Waste Agency! And we appreciate the continued partnership with the Cave Junction Farmers' Market and the Illinois Valley Community Development Organization so much!

Clean Sweeps (with the Hub and all the perks) are now done till spring. Mini-Sweeps will continue through winter, so keep an eye out if you can't bear to wait till spring to get together with friends for a little cleanup work!

10/10/2026

sweep

10/10/2026

Clean Sweep Today! #

10/09/2026

Here's the video with a better look at the trash dumpers - see the previous post for the context!

10/09/2026

Caught in the act! Help us find them!
These people drove out to a previously dumped area near the Kerby Transfer Station, backed up to an existing pile of trash, and pulled a great big load of trash out of their car to add to the pile...and we got the whole thing on camera!

Their trash included some mail with a name and a Grants Pass address. We turned these in to the authorities, so County Public Health and a Sheriff's Deputy went to the address yesterday - and the landlord agreed that the pictures matched the name on the mail. But the trash dumpers had just been evicted, and the landlord didn't know where they'd gone! They are probably living in this valley now and that's why they dumped the trash here. So: surely somebody recognizes these people! Can anybody tell us where they are living? If so, the law enforcement team is fired up to go confront them and make them pick up the trash that they dumped.

(Note: some of the pictures are of the same people a few minutes before they dumped the trash, making a pit stop at the Hilltop Homestead's free pantry, and these pictures are included because they are probably more helpful for identifying the people or the vehicle. We also have a video of the people, as a separate post on Motherline's FB homepage, because it shows the people pretty well.)

And then don't forget to come help pick up the rest of the trash (not these people's trash, though) at the Clean Sweep on Saturday! Also the special bonus event for Saturday is that Sheriff Dave Daniel is going to come to lunch with us for a bit and talk about what the Sheriff's department can and can't do to help us with the trash dumping problems out here. Which is so great because we all speculate about that kind of thing, but I don't know the actual legal requirements for convicting somebody for trash dumping, and I'm pretty sure most of the residents of the IV don't totally understand it, either.

See you on Saturday!

More info:
www.TheMotherline.org/Clean-Sweep
https://www.facebook.com/share/1DyXenYJGp/

10/08/2026

Learn the process of evaporating an abandoned RV!
Friends of Fall Creek Watershed Inc. are coming back on Saturday to help us with a couple more removals, and to teach local volunteers who want to learn the process. It's an AMAZING thing to start with a ginormous j***y RV, separate it into piles of trash and piles of recycling, and make it go away!

Check out the RV that FOFCW dismantled outside Tiller, teaching a few of us the process:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVkV8Af6N_8

And come out during the Clean Sweep this Saturday, the 10th, and learn how to do it yourself! Please send a DM if you're interested and want to find out more details.

No interest in RVs? Come pick up trash in the woods with us! Everyone is welcome at the Clean Sweep! Saturday, October 10, 9-1am, lunch to follow. Meet at Kerby Mainline along the road to the transfer station, you'll see us in the clearing on the left!

More info, details about Saturday's Clean Sweep, to join the Motherline, or to donate:
www.TheMotherline.org/Clean-Sweep

See you on Saturday!

One last RV on our list in the Umpqua National Forest! Mac is down ...

10/05/2026

The last big Clean Sweep of 2026 is this Saturday! Don't miss out! We need lots of people and lots of trucks to zoom around the valley getting trash from far-flung spots (plus a couple of spots in or near Kerby Mainline). We'll have coffee, donuts, and snacks, as always, plus Chef Carrie of Sugar Pine Dine will be BBQing fajitas for lunch, and serving rootbeer floats for dessert!

Plus Friends of Fall Creek Watershed Inc. will be leading us in some more RV removals so this is your chance to come help and learn the techniques of DIY RV removal, and Caveman 4-Wheelers will be joining the fun by pulling out abandoned cars to take to the scrap yard.

It should be a commotion out there in the woods on Saturday, in the best sense of the word! See you there!

Saturday October 10, 9-1. To find us, drive down Kerby Mainline Road like you're going to the transfer station and you'll see us in the clearing on the left.

For more information, to join The Motherline, or to donate:
www.TheMotherline.org/Clean-Sweep

This is a great big collaborative project! Thank you to Cave Junction Farmers' Market and Illinois Valley Community Development Organization for continued partnership on this project, and to the Josephine County Solid Waste Agency and the BLM for the major funding for the work.

10/04/2026

At the core of Motherline is our youth arts and agriculture programs, which help us move toward the culture of restoration we envision through ReciProsperity! Now, through November 1, you can bring your leaves and drop them for free along the outer fence of the garden, at our Cave Junction Farmers Market site! We will turn those leaves into mulch which will become gorgeous soil! Other things we need, you ask?! Winter hardy succulents! Large stumps! Boulders! Animal manure! Help us grow leaders. Reach out to Ariadne Grace, [email protected]!