Rebecca Tarbotton (Rainforest Action Network)

Environmental activists in the Bay Area and beyond are mourning the death of Rebecca Tarbotton, the executive director of the San Francisco-based Rainforest Action Network.

Tarbotton, 39 years old, drowned Wednesday while vacationing in Mexico.

She was widely seen as a leader in bringing younger, more diverse voices to a male-dominated movement, and she described herself as a "pragmatic idealist." She recently brokered an agreement with the Walt Disney Company to change the way it acquires and uses paper.

Memorial services will be held in San Francisco and in Tarbotton's native British Columbia.

You can read more at Grist and Democracy Now.

Here is a a statement from the Rainforest Action Network, and video of Tarbotton speaking at a conference in October.

There are also numerous expressions of sadness and condolence coming through on Twitter. Here are just two, from a pair of prominent progressives...

A terrible, almost unbelievable loss. "Rebecca Tarbotton, head of Rainforest Action Network, dies at 39" grist.org/climate-energy…

— Naomi Klein (@NaomiAKlein) December 28, 2012

Tragic loss of great leader & women/ Leading Environmentalist Rebecca Tarbotton of Rainforest Action Network Dies at 39 bit.ly/12UGdCF

— Katrina vandenHeuvel (@KatrinaNation) December 28, 2012