Goat(s) on Great Misery Island

[Nancy Hill]

The rescue story about the goat in Belfast, Maine reminded me of this.

My husband saw a goat on Great Misery Island today. We also saw a lot of deer, but that is to be expected, But, a goat? One thought is that a goat (or goats - but he only saw one) were taken to the island to keep the poison ivy and other vegetation at bay. Does anyone know anything about this? Is this another runaway goat?

 

[Deb Millar]

Hi Nancy,

My guess is that The Trustees of Reservations, who owns Great Misery, brought the goat(s) over to control the vegetation. They've done this in the past on Hog/Choate Island.

 

[prudenceb]

17 minutes ago, Nancy Hill said:

The rescue story about the goat in Belfast, Maine reminded me of this.

My husband saw a goat on Great Misery Island today. We also saw a lot of deer, but that is to be expected, But, a goat? One thought is that a goat (or goats - but he only saw one) were taken to the island to keep the poison ivy and other vegetation at bay. Does anyone know anything about this? Is this another runaway goat?

 

Cool!

 

[mhabich]

We’ve seen deer swimming off West Beach. No goats. 

[Joseph Berkovitz]

Interesting. I'll have to make it out there to Misery to see if I can find them. Hope you all had fun yesterday!

In California goats are used quite a lot to keep vegetation under control for fire prevention, you see them up on the ridges in open spaces. Where we were staying near San Pablo Bay, one day we saw a big animal truck filled with goats from a company called "Goats R Us"  driving around. Later we saw the same company's herds while hiking around my daughter's place. There was a goatherd living up there with the goats, too, with a couple of dogs to help manage the goats.

Cheaper than machinery, and cuter.

[Nancy Hill]

Now, I want to go back to Misery to look for goats! I think Wayne was the only one to see it (but I assume there are more).

 

[Doug Cooke]

Wow!  A new club activity, goat hunting!!!

[dsigall]