By Jeff Kenney Staff Writer
CULVER — When Indiana Dept. of Natural Resources head Rob Carter returned to Lake Maxinkuckee this month, his visit was a bit more low-key than the extensive tour of the lake and Academy afforded the then-new director last fall.
Instead, after a brief gathering at the East Shore home of Richard Ford, who organized this and last year’s visits, Carter joined representatives of the Lake Maxinkuckee Environmental Council and Fund, area habitat and ecological firm J.F. New and the Culver Academies. The group took a boat trip around the lake piloted by LMEC board member Gary Shaffer, in a craft owned by LMEF board Vice President Carol Zeglis and husband John.

One of the primary missions of the trip was to illustrate potential environmental issues raised by motor boats traveling too close to shore in unusually shallow areas that still fall outside the regulated line of buoys on the lake, which conform to DNR statutes requiring placement 200 feet from shore.
LMEC Director Kathy Clark said the DNR regulation distance marks the high speed boating zone and is set primarily as a safety measure between boaters and other water activities that generally take place closer to shore.  From an environmental standpoint that 200-feet rule is not always a sufficient distance to prevent shallow areas from being stirred and chopped up by boat engines — a practice not healthy for the lake ecologically.
LMEF board member Jack Cunningham pointed out several areas of Lake Maxinkuckee — most notably just off Long Point and in an area just south of the Culver Cove — in which a 200-foot distance from shore is still quite shallow water. He pointed out the lake bottom, clearly visible at a depth of only about four feet, off Long Point, well outside the buoy line.
Clark noted that the LMEF/LMEC recognizes that DNR rules and regulations must be broad in scope to cover all of Indiana’s lakes in general policy terms.  But for a lake the size (1,864 acres) of Lake Maxinkuckee and with the sometimes wide 5 feet deep shelf along a lot of the western edge, balancing ecological concerns while being careful to not impede public access and enjoyment could require some special thought.  
Jeff Kutch, facilities director for Culver Academies, showed Carter and other guests the school’s new floating pier, installed this past spring for use in the Academy’s summer naval program. He said the new pier is more stable than the previous one, which was 50 years old and built before various changes in DNR codes. Dan Baughman, Academy faculty member and LMEC board member, was also on board to relay the two dives he participated in this season while surveying for the invasive plant hydrilla.  The lake has received a clean bill of health this year and will be surveyed again next year in different areas, hopefully with the same results.