A fight over dirt bikes has pitted neighbor against neighbor in the rural backwoods of West Tisbury.

At a contentious public hearing before the West Tisbury zoning board of appeals on Wednesday, some 40 town residents and bikers attended either to defend the dirt biking at Nip ’n’ Tuck Farm off State Road as a harmless recreational activity or denounce it as an acoustic assault that is financially and psychologically injurious.

In November town building and zoning inspector Ernie Mendenhall ruled that the dirt bikes did not rise to the level of a public nuisance. Abutters who have seen their summer weekends interrupted by the noisy whine of two-stroke engines have appealed the decision.

The zoning board of appeals has received a number of letters from disgruntled neighbors to the farm. In one Bonnie Tilton Jackson of Eliakim’s Way wrote of a “wounding assault” of noise and vibration that had caused “anger, frustration, tears of helplessness and disbelief.

“The afternoon hours are relentlessly filled with physical and emotional stress,” she wrote.

“When I’m outside during the afternoon I find myself growing more and more irritable,” wrote another neighbor.

“Is this what West Tisbury has come to?” asked Wayne Greenwell of Yellow Brick Road at the hearing Wednesday. “The taxpaying residents have to ask dirt bikers permission to enjoy backyards and peace and quiet?”

Mr. Greenwell compared the effect of the track on the quiet rural nature of West Tisbury to an imagined jet-skiing course on Seth’s Pond.

Other letters took another point of view.

“Mr. Mendenhall, Not all of us are unhappy with your finding at Nip ’n’ Tuck Farm,” wrote Amy O’Brien of Edgartown, who owns a house abutting a land bank property frequented by dirt bikers. “There was a time when everyone was upset about riders on state forest property. At Nip ’n’ Tuck there are time limits and supervision . . . Live and let live,” she wrote.

“There must be new neighbors or people with no room for tolerance,” wrote Peter Costas of West Tisbury.

But at the hearing on Wednesday Louisa Williams, who said she moved to the area 20 years ago for its serenity, spoke out strongly against the bikers.

“Like so many others we were drawn to the convenience of the area but also for peace and quiet,” she said. “We loved the idea that our house was next to Nip ’n’ Tuck and that when the wind blew from certain directions we could hear the cows.”

Then five years ago, Ms. Williams said, she and her husband, Christopher Brooks, began hearing the bikes.

“We decided to wait it out,” she said. “We figured maybe [Nip ’n’ Tuck owner] Fred Fisher’s son, who was a teenager then, would eventually find girls or cars or something other than dirt bikes. But it’s gotten worse.”

Mr. Brooks said he and his wife now stand to lose financially, as renters or eventual buyers may opt for a quieter setting.

“We could take a substantial financial hit there,” he said. “We might not be able to sell our house because of this noise. It really is quite a worry to us.”

Mr. Brooks also said the activity may not be in keeping with restrictions placed on the land in 1986 when the state bought the development rights to the farm under the Agricultural Preservation Restriction (APR) program.

Board of appeals chairman Tucker Hubble acknowledged the potential problem but said that is a matter for the selectmen and the conservation commission, not the board of appeals.

Mr. Brooks and abutter Steve Maxner did acknowledge the importance of riding to the bikers and suggested the town look to dedicate a track in an appropriate area.

“We encourage the town to find a good safe location so that people who want to ride motocross bikes can, but to let them do it on Nip ’n’ Tuck isn’t right,” said Mr. Brooks.

J.J. Mendez spoke on behalf of the bikers and called for compromise, listing the many ways that he had tried to accommodate abutters.

“I’ve done everything I can with noise,” said Mr. Mendez, who said he had cut time on the track from daily sessions to five hours on the weekend between 2:30 and 5 p.m. He said he had even shut the track down for weeks while he raised funds among the bikers to buy trees and fencing to plant around the track to mitigate the noise.

“I’m doing everything I can to make people happy. I’ve cut down hours to a minimum,” he said.

Mr. Mendez, who competes nationally on his bike, also insisted that the track provides a supervised and controlled environment for his bikers — a group that he has limited to 20 people — all of whom are both registered and insured.

“A lot of them are fathers with their children,” he said. “To me that’s a good thing. We teach kids the right way, not the wrong way. Someone’s there to help them versus being in the state forest. If anyone gets hurt in the state forest they’re stuck there until you can find an ambulance and a way to get in there; it could be a life-or-death situation.”

To Islanders unfamiliar with Vineyard dirt bike culture the meeting was also an opportunity to learn about the Island’s hidden dirt bike geography. Mr. Mendez said his track was being unfairly blamed for noise coming from the Cournoyer pit, a place known as the skunks’ graveyard at the end of Bailey Park Road and other illicit riding pits often adjacent to ancient ways and state forest trails.

“With the kids riding back and forth on the ancient ways, everybody’s going, ‘Oh, that’s J.J.’s track — go after him,’ which is kind of unfair but I understand because they have someone to point at,” he said. “That’s very loud; I understand that, but there’s no one regulating that.”

For more than a decade Mr. Mendez said he has been investigating other sites but has been turned down, both in the state forest and on a plot in the airport business park owned by the Steamship Authority.

“Believe me, folks, I’ve tried many, many locations,” he said.

At the hearing’s conclusion abutter Robert E.L. Knight spoke about his experiences with the Nip ’n’ Tuck track, which he estimated lies 300 yards from his house on Davis Look Road.

“I was rather surprised to read that this track has been here for five years,” he said. “I didn’t know that. In five years I have, frankly, never been bothered by the noise. I hear a little noise sometimes off in the distance, but it’s never bothered me and it’s never bothered anyone in my family. I have no complaints.”

“Love you,” said a clapping Mr. Mendez.

“Sound is an interesting thing,” Mr. Hubble mused.

The hearing was kept open at the conclusion of Wednesday’s meeting to gather additional written public comment. The board will meet again on Feb. 10 at 5 p.m. in the town hall, when Mr. Hubble said he expects the public record will be closed and the board will vote on the appeal.