Rebecca Sutter (Provided photo)

RAQUETTE LAKE — Paul Smith’s College professor Rebecca Sutter has been hired as a headwaters coordinator in the Raquette River watershed and will be working with both the Adirondack Council and the Northern Forest Canoe Trail, the two organizations announced.

Sutter will be working with both NFCT and the council to build capacity among local stakeholders such as lake associations, government officials, business owners and environmental groups to best address pressures to watershed health that span across many jurisdictions. She will be reporting to council and NFCT staff in a position funded through a New York Great Lakes Basin Small Grants Program grant.

“I believe we all have a role in protecting our waters,” Sutter said. “As stewards, we find the power to affect change in our own lives and in our communities. The Raquette River has given me so much. So I have a responsibility to give back to these communities.

“It’s very important that we understand our history of resilience will be tested with changing climate patterns and more directly, that it will affect our fragile watershed economies and ecosystems. In fact, we are being tested already,” she added. “For our children, there is so much at stake. We must act quickly to teach them their role as stewards so it is a great opportunity to bring together the lake associations to face these challenges as a collective force for positive change.”

Raquette River is one of the major watersheds originating in the Adirondack Park and connecting Adirondack communities like Blue Mountain Lake, Raquette Lake and Long Lake on its way to the international St. Lawrence River and Seaway. Water quality issues in the headwaters can have adverse impacts on communities, people and nature hundreds of miles away, and the headwaters coordinator is meant to bring a sense of camaraderie and mutual support to invested people across the region.

Sutter will maintain her position at Paul Smith’s College and work part-time as the headwaters coordinator.

“The waterways of the Adirondacks form the nexus of our ecology, economies and culture. Likewise, recreation occupies a very similar space,” said Karrie Thomas, executive director of NFCT. “Becky’s background, connections and passion for paddling will help us find commonalities and positive outcomes in this effort to build the capacity of the lake associations at the headwaters of the Raquette River watershed.”

“Becky’s knowledge of hydrology and Adirondack history means she deeply understands the value of water to Adirondack communities and ecology,” said Jackie Bowen, the Adirondack Council’s director of conservation. “We are thrilled she will bring this expertise and passion to the Campaign to facilitate increased support and management of the Raquette River Headwaters alongside dedicated Lake Associations and partners.”