Marblehead man gets grief about island goats

The Conservation Commission wants to get Peter Noyes? goat.Actually, there are about a half-dozen goats that Noyes brought to Little Harbor Island, also known as Gerry Island, earlier this year to eat the underbrush. The commission members want Noyes to take the goats back to where they came from.Conservation Administrator William Lanphear said Thursday that the trouble with the goats is their appetite.?They eat the vegetation,” Lanphear said, “and it?s the vegetation that holds the soil together on the island – and they poop all over the place.”Commission members sent enforcement orders to Noyes and island owner Edward Moore on June 30, instructing them to remove the goats, but so far the goats have stubbornly held their ground.?The orders were sent return receipt requested but so far I haven?t received a receipt,” Lanphear said.Asked for comment, Noyes declined.His consultant, Peter Ogren of Hayes Engineering, smiled and said, “That?s not my area of expertise.?I have heard that goats eat poison ivy,” he added, referring to a plant that has been observed on the island by site visitors.The enforcement orders are the latest of five that the commission has issued in connection with Noyes?s plan to repair the island?s seawall and use it for personal boat storage and repair, and possibly a campground. He also seeks to establish a permanent ramp on the causeway that runs from the vicinity of Gas House Beach to the island, so that he can move boats back and forthOn May 31, the commission issued an order against Noyes for driving a truck on the beach and, on June 2, the commission issued orders against Noyes and Moore for altering a beach, coastal bank and the island.Noyes?s requests are being watched by lobstermen, who fear negative effects on a large lobster breeding ground, and neighbors who call themselves the Friends of Little Harbor. The Friends have hired a wetland scientist, Curt Young, to represent them.