On the opening day of deer season, central Maine hunters were largely unfazed by the PFAS advisory

Saturday was the first day Maine residents could bag a deer during the firearms hunting season.

It was also the first time hunters were warned that any deer they harvested in parts of Albion, Freedom, Unity and Unity Township it would not be safe to eat due to the presence of so-called forever chemicals, commonly known by the acronym PFAS.

But many hunters at tagging stations near the area Saturday morning were mostly excited about their quick and successful start to the month-long firearms hunting season, saying they either walked away from two new areas of “Do not eat” advice, or they simply accepted any potential risk.

Dan McKeen, 62, of Benton was among about a dozen hunters who brought in deer to be registered between 9:30 and 10 a.m. at the Troy General Store. The store, at 1129 Bangor Road in Troy, is one of the closest tagging stations to the Do Not Eat warnings, a few miles northwest of the one in Unity Township.

Dan McKeen’s son, Mark McKeen, 37, of Jackman, shot the mature deer in Unity — on land outside the two areas covered by the advisory.

“At my age, I don’t care. I’ve been eating it all my life,” said the elder McKeen. “What will change?”

His son agreed: “It’s healthier than anything we buy at the grocery store,” Mark McKeen said.

The Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, in collaboration with the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention, issued the two Do Not Eat warnings for deer and wild turkey from areas of eastern Kennebec and western Waldo counties just over a week before the firearms deer hunting season begins for Maine residents. Deer firearms season opens for all Mondays and runs through Nov. 30; the fall wild turkey season began in September and ends Thursday.

One of the new advisory areas is a 5.4 square mile area near Route 139 in northwest Unity and the eastern half of Unity Township. The other is a 4.3-square-mile area near US Route 202 on the south side of the Unit and extends into parts of Albion and Freedom.

The two new warnings were the first issued since 2021, when state officials issued a similar warning for 25 square miles in parts of Fairfield and Skowhegan. A portion of that advisory area remains in effectand state officials say they don’t know how long any of the three current advisories will last.

The two new Do Not Eat zones were determined after testing 54 deer and 55 turkeys in the area for PFAS, short for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, according to the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife.

Found in many types of consumer products, PFAS are often referred to as “forever chemicals” because they break down slowly and are found in soil, water, plants and animals. The substances are known to increase the risk of cancer and other health conditions.

State officials have been sampling wildlife in central Maine around the new advisory areas to determine the impact of PFAS on the animals, the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife said. The advisory areas align with areas known to be contaminated with high levels of PFAS by spreading municipal and industrial sludge on farms, a practice banned in Maine starting in 2022.

Deer are moving, of course, but would most likely stay in an area smaller than the size of the new advisory areas, at least in the summer, according to information from the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife. The summer range of the white-tailed deer in Maine varies from 150 to 2,000 acres, or about 0.25 to three square miles, although it is usually about 500 to 600 acres, or a little less than a mile square.

As deer move from summer living areas to suitable wintering areas, they can travel less than a mile to more than 25 miles, the department says on its website. About 94 percent of Maine is considered deer habitat, although winter habitat varies from 2 to 25 percent in different parts of the state.

Some hunters took a measured approach to considering the PFAS advisory, saying they took into account the specific location they chose to hunt Saturday.

At Tobey’s Grocery on Route 3 in South China, a popular tagging station a few miles south of the Do Not Eat advisory zones, husband and wife Sarah Squire, 60, and Mark Squire, 62 years old, weighing a deer shot while hunting. their land in Albion. They usually hunt there, the two said.

Sarah Squire said the property is in the southern part of Albion, away from the small portion of town under notice.

“I called the DEP and the game wardens,” she said. “And they said we’re actually safe.”

Inside the store, Jennifer BernhardtThe 36-year-old, of Baldwin, was waiting in line for a dollar tag harvested from family-owned land in Vassalboro, where she’s originally from. The Kennebec County town is southwest of the Do Not Eat zones.

Bernhardt, who started hunting when she met her husband and estimates she’s been hunting deer for about seven years, said the PFAS advisory hasn’t affected her plans.

“It’s not close to us,” Bernhardt said. “And we keep an eye on our deer. They are the ones who have been in the same place, like all year. I’m there pretty consistently.”

Back in Troy, 38-year-old Brian Seavey brought in a 10-point buck that he staked on his Troy property.

Seavey, who said he always hunts on the opening day of the season, said he isn’t concerned about the nearby “Do Not Eat” notice.

“I just don’t care about it, I guess,” he said.

Around the same time as Seavey, Kaleigh Clemons13, of Pittsfield, tagged an eight-point buck she shot on her grandfather’s property in Burnham. Last year, she bagged a deer that weighed about the same, about 150 pounds, Clemons said.

Clemons’ grandfather, Paul Woodbury, 69, said he recognized the Do Not Eat zones in part in Unity, the next town over from where he lives. But he wasn’t worried about any PFAS contamination.

“I don’t know,” he said. “I guess the odds.”

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