Volunteers Remove Graffiti, Trash and ‘Slime Finger Paintings’ at Ape Cave South of Mount St. Helens

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Before last weekend, one of the largest and most visited caves in the United States was filled with spray paint graffiti and “slime finger paintings,” but now Ape Cave is looking better than ever with the help of volunteers.

The last time the 2.5-mile-long lava tube was cleaned was in 2016, but that was only light maintenance in the lower cave, said Ray Keeler, government liaison for the National Speleological Society and leader of the Ape Cave clean-up project.

“There have been many complaints for years over the graffiti and ‘slime finger painting’ markings,” Keeler said.

Gala Miller, public affairs officer with the U.S. Forest Service for Gifford Pinchot National Forest, said graffiti hasn’t been an issue until the last decade, and it’s seen a rise in recent years.

Phase 1 of the project was kicked off in the summer when Eagle Scout Kate Fredrickson provided a report of all graffiti and slime markings, which is detrimental to the living bacteria on the cave walls, within the lava tube complete with location and size.

After that, it was time to start Phase 2, the clean-up. The team consisted of members of the U.S. Forest Service and dozens of volunteers. Members of three local grottos, Oregon Grotto, Oregon High Desert Grotto and Cascade Grotto, volunteered their time and energy to the conservation project.

Devin Harris, a member of the Oregon Grotto and accompanied by friend Steven Cheswick, celebrated his 37th birthday by volunteering.

“I decided I wanted to do something good for my birthday, so we decided to join and help the cause,” Harris said.



Two separate teams used wire and bristle brushes to scrape and clean as much as possible before going in with a pressure washer.

Keeler said to get the spray paint off, they use a water-activated biodegradable solvent.

“We first have to wipe all water off and then let the solvent sit for 15 minutes and then use the battery powered washers to wipe it all off the wall,” he said.

As for the slime markings, the team used a light pressure washer to blend the slime out so that the “finger paintings” could no longer be seen.

An estimated 500 gallons of water were packed in by volunteers to make pressure washing possible.

“Our goal is to clean up the whole cave, so that the forest service will be able to maintain it,” Keeler said.

After a weekend of removing hundreds of tags, as well as trash, gum and fecal matter, Keeler said he hopes that, in the future, the forest service will find tags and clean it up themselves right away, which will hopefully deter more vandalism.