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Dogwood Alliance mourns the passing of longtime forest activist and talented musician Alison Cochran.
On Sunday night, longtime activist, musician and friend of our forests, Alison Cochran, passed away. Alison was a co-founder of Heartwood and served as Executive Director from 1999-2001. She also helped found Dogwood Alliance and served two separate terms on our Board of Directors. She was a great spirit, incredible facilitator, and one heck of a musician with a moving voice and deft hands on the fiddle. She will truly be missed!
Below is a short reflection from Campaign Director, Scot Quaranda, please feel free to add your own reflections to the comments...
Remembering Alison Cochran
Tis the song, the sigh of the weary;
Hard Times, Hard Times, come again no more:
Many days you have lingered around my cabin door;
Oh! Hard Times, come again no more.
- Hard Times Come Again No More by Stephen Foster
I remember the first time I met Alison - it was a beautiful Autumn day at Moonshadow in the Sequatchie Valley on the Cumberland Plateau. She was in between terms on the Dogwood Alliance board of directors but agreed to facilitate our meeting as we were having a particularly contentious board meeting, though for all I remember, the conflict could have simply been over why we were holding the meeting inside the house rather then out in the forests we were working to protect. Logic won out and we got down to the real business at hand thanks to her. She was a maestra of consensus, an incredible facilitator, probably my greatest teacher - turning the acidic barbs and cautious laughter like so many ingredients in a cauldron and brewing them into a strong bond, finding that ceremonial and magical place where we could leave behind our varied scales of perception and find the common ground that would not simply move the work forward, but unite once again with common purpose assured that all was well and right and we collectively had the wisdom to overcome all obstacle and face insurmountable odds.
This was an incredible gift and no matter how hot tempers flared or how soft the voice of the quietest one in the room was she poked and prodded and pushed with a firm yet gentle touch until we were raw yet satisfied. The whole was only as great as the sum of its parts and Alison managed to make us all stronger, better, and more sure that no matter what road we took to get there, no matter how difficult the climb, that what lay ahead was going to be worth the hard work.
After that meeting she was persuaded to take another round on our board of directors and always brought that magic, ensuring the voiceless had a voice and the loudest in the room was laughing by the end rather than stewing. After her term ended, a few years passed before I saw her again. Her and her husband Chris were passing through town and offered to play a house party as a fundraiser for Dogwood Alliance. She was no longer involved in the day to day struggle of the fight for the forests or administrating and politicking that goes along with the environmental movement, but that did not steal an ounce of passion that she had for the forests, wildlife and communities that were so integral to the real meaning of why we struggle. It was Saint Brigid's day, the halfway point between Winter Solstice and Spring Equinox, when the increasing light of day starts to become noticeable, when everything in its winter slumber feels the first pangs of awakening, a scant moment before the trillium breaks through the leaf litter on the forest floor to let us know the days will be brighter again. The perfect time in so many ways for Allison to re-appear into our lives. She and her partner played old time tunes and bluegrass, including a particularly moving version of "Hard Times" by Stephen Foster, as we drank home brew and shined a light bright into the darkness. Her voice haunting and her fiddle hitting the perfect timbre of the mood.
Alison was a true warrior of light who won you over not with an aggressive nature or by overwhelming you with depressing facts but instead by accepting the truth within you and helping you to find the truth in everyone. She will be truly missed!
Photos Courtesy of Andy Mahler and Heartwood
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