South Park is more silent this spring.
Normally Eddie Kochman would be out on the meandering Middle Fork of the South Platte River fishing. And hatching ideas for restoring degraded habitat. And advocating for taking better care of streams.
Kochman died May 16 at his cabin along that Middle Fork he loved. He was 73. He died of a heart attack after visiting old mines.
A longtime employee of the Colorado Division of Wildlife, Kochman managed the state’s fisheries. After he retired, he continued to put his heart into conservation.
He could see what struggling streams needed. Along a 1.5-mile stretch near his cabin, Kochman recognized that a century of pounding by cattle hooves — uncontrolled grazing — had flattened and broadened the stream bed. This hurt fish life, mostly tiny brown trout.
Trout Unlimited leaders embraced Kochman’s analysis and launched a restoration project along those waters between Fairplay and Hartsel.
More recently, Kochman was working on the problem of inactive mines on the west side of South Park draining an acidic mix of heavy metals South Platte headwaters — metro Denver’s watershed.
He’d visited mines the day he died, suddenly and unexpectedly, friends said, fighting for Colorado natural resources.
Born and raised in Salida, Kochman lived in Colorado all his life. He hunted and fished and pushed for smarter conservation. In the 1960s, he battled an oil company that disposed of waste in open pits, killing water birds.
“Eddie was a tenacious, unrelenting advocate for safeguarding un-fragmented wildlife habitat, and the quality of streams, especially in his beloved South Park. We miss him very much,” Colorado Wildlife Federation director Suzanne O’Neill said.
Kochman is survived by his wife, Beatrice Kochman, sons, Alan and wife,Charlotte, Ben and wife, Dana; grandchildren, Cassie, Grace, Sydney, Toren; and many friends.
