| May 17, 2023


While Lonnie Watkins Tree Service is celebrating its official 25th anniversary this month, the business has much deeper roots than that.

Lonnie Watkins was raised in the wood cutting business, as both his father and grandfather cut wood on the farm and for a living, at times. When he was a kid he would cut small cedars in the marsh around his home with a Swede saw, to sell to Snell's Cedar in Sharbot Lake.

When he turned 11, his Christmas present from his father came in a number of parcels. There were some chainsaw accessories and parts, the body of a Pioneer Partner 40, a small saw that was popular in 1982.

“We put that saw together and I was out the door to the swamp, cutting everything I could cut. And I've never stopped,” he said from his home last week.

“The Pioneer was eventually replaced by a Stihl saw that I bought at Barbary's [a store that was located at Silver Lake], and then I bought my first Husky (Husquvarna) at Dean's [Manion's Sales and Service) and I've been hooked on Huskies ever since. I have 10-12 saws now,” he said.

In addition to saws, he uses other equipment, including a 17' forestry claw that enables him to do work he could never do otherwise.

“I think I climbed one or two trees last year. The claw does most everything”.

The claw also keeps him safe when dealing with all of the needs of his customers.

And those needs are extensive right now. When the Derecho storm hit North Frontenac a year ago this weekend, it brought massive amounts of work to tree service companies, and Watkins Tree service has been booked solid ever since, which extends all the way to the end of 2023 and even beyond.

“The devastation is amazing. I pulled down 17 hardwoods off one small property. At first I was dealing with real emergencies, pulling trees off roofs and all that. I did that straight for two months, 7 days a week last summer, and now it is more clean up and clearing woods and fields,” he said.

It reminds him a little bit of what happened when he first decided to incorporate his business, back in 1998.

“There was so much to do in the township when the ice storm hit that year, that I was encouraged to start an official business in order to get some of the local contracts. And I ended up running a crew of 11 that year.”

For years, Lonnie was working up north in Iqaluit, two weeks on and two weeks at home, helping his family and running his business, but that ended in 2004, and he has been running the tree service and firewood business exclusively since then.

When he met his wife Rhonda in 2000, he found a life partner, and also business partner to handle bookkeeping and other jobs, and now their two children, Charlie and Amy, also help out in the bush.

Years ago, Lonnie built a kiln to dry out firewood. The kiln dried wood that he sells is in high demand because of how cleanly it burns.

While he works mostly with family now, he has run crews, on and off, over the years, and takes pride in the fact that at least two of the high school students that he has taken on for summer and weekend work, are now working full time as foresters.

It's rare for someone to find their calling when they are young, but for Lonnie Watkins, the forestry business still gets him up early each day, raring to get out into the bush, just as it did back in the late 70's and early 80's when he was out with his Swede saw cutting cedar. It's rare for someone to find their calling when they are young, but for Lonnie Watkins, the forestry business still gets him up early each day, raring to get out into the bush, just as it did back in the late 70's and early 80's when he was out with his Swede saw cutting cedar.

Support local
independant journalism by becoming a patron of the Frontenac News.