CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (KCRG) -Ben Lauer still has a stock pile of tree branches taken out by the 140 mile per hour winds of the derecho two years ago.

“I just love this stuff,” Lauer said while pulling out one of the branches.

Like so many after the storm, the father of three helped clean up debris in the community.

“We helped clean up all over, the neighbors and everything,” Lauer said.

That’s when he had an idea to turn some of the debris back into trees.

”It just seemed like the thing to do to start using these chunks you know to make something, something different,” said Lauer.

At the time, Lauer was furloughed from his job at Theatre Cedar Rapids because of the pandemic. He says his lathe became his escape.

“It was basically, started as a hobby. You know keep my mind off of everything going on,” Lauer explained.

Now his work is on display and for sale inside Newbo Market at a shop called SKAPA.

“If I can sell a few of them great, and I take a percentage of that and donate it to Trees Forever so that I can give back some,” Lauer said.

He’s taking tree debris, turning it into tree art, and selling it with 10% going to help plant new trees in the community. It’s something Lauer calls recycling.

”It’s just a way to recycle, reuse something that’s not going to be used again,” he said.

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