Rebecca Tarbotton was, by all accounts, a force of nature, which is why her sudden, tragic death last week was so difficult for her friends and co-workers to understand.

Ms. Tarbotton, the first woman to ever lead the Rainforest Action Network, drowned Wednesday while on vacation in Mexico. She was 39.

The environmental activist traveled the world fighting the exploitation of rain forests, championing the preservation of natural resources and human rights, and winning numerous battles in the ongoing fight for ecosystem health.

She was a natural-born leader, but she was also graceful and thoughtful under fire, according to those who knew her. She was so insightful and persuasive, her colleagues said, that she was able to convince even billion-dollar companies to reconsider their policies and make transformative change.

Ocean accident

Ms. Tarbotton was playing in rough surf on a beach north of Puerto Vallarta, according to her colleagues at the Rainforest Action Network, and made it to shore, where she collapsed.

A coroner determined that she had inhaled too much water and ruled that asphyxiation was the cause of death.

Friends said the "freak accident" that killed Ms. Tarbotton robbed the environmental movement of one of its strongest leaders.

Ms. Tarbotton, an Oakland resident born in Vancouver, British Columbia, saw herself as a pragmatic idealist who believed the path to an environmentally sustainable future would require a shift in the economy and how corporations operate, according to the Rainforest Action Network in San Francisco.

She developed that thinking after years of working overseas with communities trying to sustain their traditional farming systems.

Years of activism

Ms. Tarbotton, who earned her undergraduate degree from McGill University in Montreal and her master's degree from the University of British Columbia, started off as an environmental researcher working with indigenous communities in Canada. She spent eight years in northern India, where she helped people - women, in particular - build an alternative to the Western development model of farming.

She spent time in the United Kingdom raising awareness for the local food movement before moving to California to work as a campaign coordinator fighting genetically modified food.

Ms. Tarbotton joined the Rainforest Action Network about six years ago, recruited by Michael Brune, now the executive director of the Sierra Club.

He said she was the type of person who was "equally good at challenging corporate CEOs about their practices as she was about motivating grassroots activists."

"Becky was unique in that she worked really hard and she fought hard for what she believed in, but she always had a smile," he said. "She didn't get downtrodden about the scale of the problem we have to face, nor did she get frustrated by the slow pace of action happening in corporate America. She was always upbeat, very positive, and I think it was that quality that really drew a lot of people to her."

Significant victory

Two months before her death, Ms. Tarbotton led the nonprofit toward "the most historic victory in the organization's history" - persuading Disney to publish using only paper guaranteed to not come from an endangered rain forest or from a rain forest where there is social conflict, said Nell Greenberg, a Rainforest Action Network spokeswoman.

Ms. Tarbotton enjoyed kayaking and danced in a three-woman troupe. Brianna Cayo Cotter, who danced with Ms. Tarbotton, said she was quick to laugh and always willing to lend a hand.

"She was a special woman who got taken way too early," she said. "But she packed several lives into one very short life."

She leaves her husband, Mateo Williford of Oakland; brothers Jesse and Cameron Tarbotton; and her mother, Mary Tarbotton of Vancouver.

Her family plans to scatter her ashes off of Hornby Island in British Columbia. Public memorial services will be held in San Francisco and in Vancouver at later dates.
