A wealthy couple with a summer home in Camden, Maine, has come under fire for allegedly taking drastic measures to improve the view of the ocean from their property. Amelia Bond, former CEO of the St. Louis Foundation, allegedly used a herbicide — Tebuthiuron — to destroy trees on their neighbor's waterfront property. The drama doesn't end there.
Amelia allegedly tried to act like she was being neighborly and helpful once the herbicide started having a noticeable impacted on the trees. The lawyer representing the neighbor, Lisa Gorman, alleges that when the trees started dying, Amelia pointed it out to her neighbor Lisa and offered to cover a portion of the removal costs, reported the Associated Press.
But Lisa, who is the wife of the late Leon Gorman, L.L. Bean’s president, first had the trees tested and discovered the truth. The Bond family now has a better view of the water from their summer home, but at what cost?
So far, the Bonds have paid more than $1.7 million in fines and settlements, according to AP.
The chair of the Select Board in Camden, Maine, Tom Hedstrom, criticized Amelia's actions when speaking to AP.
"Wealth and power don’t always go hand in hand with intelligence, education, and morals," he told the outlet. "This was atrocious and gross and any other word you want to use to describe abhorrent behavior."
The outlet reported that Amelia used the herbicide on the oak trees on Lisa's property in 2021. In June 2022, Amelia offered to help have the trees removed, but Lisa then found out that the trees had been poisoned.
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It's possible that other areas in the community have also been impacted. AP reported that the herbicide has been detected at a nearby beach and park.
