A region-wide campaign is kicking off, so to speak, with opponents of British Columbia mining projects collecting as many pairs of Alaska’s ubiquitous rubber boots as it can.
Once assembled, the mountain of footwear will be deposited on Gov. Bill Walker’s lawn later this month. Collection locations have been set up in Petersburg, Sitka and Juneau, and in Wrangell donation boxes have been set up at Marine Artist Brenda Schwartz-Yeager’s shop and other local stores.
The campaign is being driven by Inside Passage Waterkeeper, a Juneau-based affiliate of the International Waterkeeper Alliance, a global movement for clean water issues.
With this year’s opening of the Red Chris mine near the Stikine River headwaters and other sizable Canadian mining projects being developed along shared rivers, water quality concerns are been raised by IPW and other Alaskan groups, such as Central Council of Tlingit-Haida Indian Tribes’ mining workgroup and Salmon Beyond Borders.
Wrangell IPW organizer Caitlin Cardinell explained the boots being deposited aren’t just a fashion statement. The rubber boots – particularly Alaska’s iconic brown Xtratufs – are a daily necessity for many who live and work here, and so are a concise symbol for the state’s varied outdoor lifestyles.
“We’re kind of doing this more of a publicity stunt,” Cardinell explained. “We want (the governor) to get ‘Xtratuf’ on the Boundary Waters Treaty.”
The 1909 treaty signed between the United States and Canada provides mechanisms for settling questions involving the rights, obligations, or interests along their common frontier, such as freedom of navigation and the mutual maintenance of shared boundary waters. Clean water proponents would like to see the International Joint Commission established by the treaty address limiting impacts of mining on the salmon-producing waters that empty into Southeast Alaska.
So far efforts on the front have not borne fruit, and IPW hopes its boot campaign will help stir some attention.
The sudden appearance of boots on the mansion lawn won’t be a complete surprise for the governor. His office has been informed in advance of the stunt, tentatively set for Aug. 26. Once the statement has been made, Cardinell explained the boots will then be removed.
People also have the option of loaning their boots out for the demonstration, labeling them for return before dropping them off in the collection bins. IPW will then see to their return following the stunt. Otherwise, new and used boots donated to the campaign will be sent to Juneau’s Glory Hole shelter and soup kitchen for distribution.
“They’re all going to a good cause in the end,” Cardinell said.
In addition to the other drop-off points, a collection table will be set up at Saturday’s Community Market from 10 a.m. to noon, inside the Nolan Center.
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