CLEVELAND — Cleveland has long been known as the "Forest City," and for Seth Harrison, our forests provide many opportunities.
Seth built an empire around the removal, upcycling, and repurposing of unwanted trees, but his multiple business endeavors started very early.
"I've been doing tree service for 17 years," Harrison said. "When I used to cut them down, I used to see the beautiful wood grain in them. I just got tired of seeing the go to waste, so about seven years ago, I just started a company called A Piece of Cleveland and started recycling all these trees."
In fact, Seth has been in this line of work for many years as the owner of Nature's Beauty Tree Service. Working in tree removal sparked an interest in transforming trees that were neglected over time and downed from storms, but perhaps his interest in trees comes from his early childhood, growing up in Cleveland Heights.
"I grew up on Sycamore Street in Cleveland Heights," he reflected. "The next street over is Oak, so there's sycamore trees, a piece of oak. It's funny how things come back full circle. (I'm) living in my dream, I guess."
As Harrison explains, the process of realizing that dream and now turning these trees into true works of art takes time and an exact process.
"When we get our trees from Nature's Beauty Tree Service, once we mill it, we've got to put it back outside for a year and let it air dry, and then we bring it back inside into our kilns and let it finish the drying process for about two months," he said. "Inside the kilns, we plane it, then we got to sand it, and then we've got to choose our finish."
But the results speak for themselves With a giant showroom on Cleveland's Nottingham Road, Seth displays an array of one-of-a-kind works of art. And as his portfolio continues to grow, so does his desire to educate others and reflect on his own journey.
"I always tell my younger version of myself to go to that wood shop class," he noted. "Our goal (is) of trying to put this back into the schools just because it is, like, a dying breed, trying to find the next generation running the hunt for him."
With a love for our city and a skill to repurpose its trees, Harrison now wants to show Cleveland's beauty by continuing to expand the company. His mission is clear.
"Just to get our wood around the world, to have A Piece of Cleveland out in Arizona, Chicago, anywhere," he declared. "I'm a piece of Cleveland; the wood's a piece of Cleveland."