Maine homeowners accused of poisoning neighbor’s trees to open waterfront view

A New York couple who own a summer house in Rockport, Maine, are accused of poisoning trees on their elderly neighbor’s property to clear a line of sight to Penobscot Bay, according to an investigation by the Maine Board of Pesticides Control and reporting by The New York Times.

Investigators found bore holes and liquid tested positive for herbicidal poison in a swath of cedar and maple trees that the board said lay "directly in line with the deck" of the Antonson residence. The board concluded the deaths were caused by an application of herbicide limited to that corridor, and noted prior correspondence in which the couple had sought removal or purchase of a strip of the neighbor’s land.

Stephen Antonson, a painter and sculptor, and his wife, Kathleen Hackett, an interior designer and author, bought the Rockport property in 2017. According to family members of the neighbor, Ruth Graham, the couple began asking for tree removal soon after moving in. Graham, then in her late 80s and legally blind, declined the requests and continued to allow neighbors to use her dock.

Shortly before the summer of 2020, the Antonson-Hackett family sent Graham a handwritten note ostensibly from their teenage children requesting "25 feet of land" behind the couple’s house for outdoor activities; Graham and her son interpreted the note as likely drafted by the parents. The following year, Graham began noticing trees on her property dying. She first hired an arborist; subsequent testing by state pesticide investigators found liquid in drilled bore holes that laboratory analysis identified as herbicidal.

The board’s investigators reported six to eight cedar trees and about four maples dead or dying in the first documented incident. Graham, concerned the dead trees could fall on her house, paid to have them removed rather than pursue a confrontation. In the fall of 2023, a friend noticed additional trees dying along another strip of Graham’s yard. Investigators returned and found further maples, each 30 to 40 feet tall, with evidence of poison at their bases.

"The Board finds that the positioning of the affected trees in addition to prior correspondence from the Antonson’s to the Graham’s requesting tree removal indicate that Antonson would have been the only one to benefit from the application of herbicides to the affected area," the Maine Board of Pesticides Control wrote in its report. The report noted Antonson denied administering the poison.

Antonson signed a consent agreement earlier this year agreeing to pay a $3,000 fine but explicitly refuting responsibility. The board voted in March to reject that agreement and directed its director to seek a settlement that would include an admission of guilt. Douglas Cole, a Rockport neighbor and friend of Graham, urged a stronger outcome in a letter to the board, writing: "It is discouraging that with no admission of guilt, no requirement for restoring the trees on Ruth’s property, and only a $3000 fine...the message is being sent that crime does pay."

A lawyer for Antonson and Hackett declined to comment, and the couple has denied wrongdoing in public statements to reporters.

The dispute outlived Graham. She died in the winter of 2024 at age 95. Her nearly 4,000-square-foot home is listed for sale, and her son, Steven Graham, has said he is weighing legal options against the Antonson-Hackett family depending on whether an admission of guilt is secured. In her obituary, the family asked friends to "please consider planting something in her memory."

The case highlights concerns about the misuse of pesticides and herbicides on private land and the challenges of proving targeted environmental damage. The Maine Board of Pesticides Control enforces state laws governing pesticide use and investigates complaints of illegal applications; its findings in this matter were based on tree examinations, laboratory analysis of liquids found in bore holes and the alignment of damaged trees with the Antonsons’ deck.

As of this report, the board continues to pursue a settlement that would include an admission of responsibility, and the outcome may determine whether Graham’s family files a civil suit seeking restoration or damages for the killed trees.