New life is born daily inside one Yonkers garage, where ‘The Black Lumberjack’ works the day away to transform old trees into someone’s new treasure.

"If a building is coming down, or if a tree is coming down, we take that, save that, give it another life and allow others to enjoy it as well," said Robert Rising, the owner of NYCitySlab. "The joy is being able to take something that has a nice provenance…or something that has lived through the city of New York and all of the different things that it's lived through. If it could tell a story."

"The Black Lumberjack’ is the title Rising claimed for himself after making an impact on the streets of Mount Vernon.

“I would have an old van and in the back of it would be a trailer and a log that I would take and park on the street," he said. "A lot of times at the red light, people would yell, 'Yo, black lumberjack!" And then it sat with me and I'm thinking, 'Wait a minute. No one would ever forget that name.'”

Now dedicated to saving the trees through his shop NYCitySlab, Rising’s business began as a one-man band two decades ago.

"I was building a house in Liberty, New York, and it was a 'dream house,'" he explained. "There was a particular thing that I wanted in the house while I was building it, [like a] different type of staircase, countertops, cabinets, [etc.]. I couldn't find the wood that I wanted. So, I started making it.”

Since then, Rising has led teams of all ages in his mission to preserve pieces of wood from all paths of life. That includes his efforts to break stereotypes for people of color in the lumber industry and offer an apprenticeship for high school students.

"Being a minority in this business is very important to me, and I want to make sure that people know that they're dealing with a minority business," he said. "I also try to pay it forward by sometimes stopping kids that are walking down the street outside and asking them if they're interested in learning the trade."

There’s also the Do-It-Yourself program that the shop offers, where guests can come in and learn the basics of the lumber industry.

"You come into the yard in Yonkers, you pick out your board or your slab...and you all work on it for the day until it's done," Rising explained. "Now in that process, those people aren't using any saws [or] anything sharp. They're not doing any of that. It's mostly a DIY where you're sanding and working on the board yourself."

NYCitySlab is located at 180 Buena Vista Avenue in Yonkers.