For the life of your trees. · (856) 241-0489
TCIA AccreditedNJ LTE #408TRAQISA Member
Since 1993.
Founded by Paul Biester — New Jersey Licensed Tree Expert #408, TRAQ-qualified, ISA Member, TCIA Accredited. Thirty-plus years caring for South Jersey’s heritage canopy.
I started Tree Awareness in 1993 because I wanted to do this work the way it should be done. Assess first. Cut last. Document everything. Treat every property like the trees on it have been there longer than the houses.
Thirty years later, that’s still the operating principle. The crew has grown. The equipment has gotten more capable. The credentials have stacked up: NJ LTE #408, TRAQ, ISA, TCIA Accredited, CTSP. But the rule hasn’t changed.
Paul Biester is the owner and operator of Tree Awareness, Inc. He founded the company in 1993 and has run continuous arboriculture practice across South Jersey for more than thirty years. The work covers pruning, removal, plant health care, tree risk assessment, consulting arboriculture, and emergency response — on residential properties, estate properties, multi-unit communities, municipal contracts, and the occasional crisis-response call.
Paul holds New Jersey Licensed Tree Expert #408, a credential issued by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection that authorizes the practice of arboriculture in the state. He is Tree Risk Assessment Qualified through the International Society of Arboriculture, the industry-standard methodology for evaluating tree risk on residential and commercial properties. He is an ISA Member. Tree Awareness is a TCIA Accredited Company — the company has earned the accreditation for three consecutive cycles, a designation held by a small fraction of tree-care companies in the region.
Paul has been documenting his field work in writing and on video since 2018, originally on the company’s Squarespace site and now on this WordPress build. The body of work currently runs to forty field-filmed posts across pests and disease, pruning technique, tree risk assessment, foundational arboriculture concepts, and case studies on real South Jersey properties. Most posts include a verbatim transcript of what Paul said on site, paired with the prose that explains the technical reasoning behind it.
The pattern is intentional. Arboriculture is a craft that depends on accumulated pattern recognition, and the only way the next generation of arborists learns the work is by watching experienced practitioners read trees in the field. The video record matters. The reasoning record matters. The two together are the closest thing to formal apprenticeship in a trade that operates mostly outside any institutional teaching infrastructure.
Day-to-day, Paul leads the Tree Awareness crew on jobs across Gloucester, Camden, Salem and Cumberland counties — 88 municipalities in the company’s service area. He performs site visits and risk assessments personally, particularly on heritage trees and high-value specimens where the keep-or-remove call needs experienced judgment. He climbs trees on jobs that benefit from a senior climber. He runs the resistograph and the visual TRAQ assessments on properties that bring him out for that specific work.
The crew — profiled on the team page — handles the day-to-day routine maintenance pruning, removals, and plant health care visits across the service area. Paul is on the larger or more technical jobs, the consulting visits, the assessments, and the field-clip recordings.
Paul co-hosts The Aging Arborist, a podcast on arboriculture practice, tree care business operations, and conversations with practitioners across the industry. The podcast features long-form interviews with climbers, consultants, equipment operators, and other working arborists across the country.
Tree Awareness participates annually in Saluting Branches, the nationwide pro-bono day of service for tree-care professionals working at veteran cemeteries.
Tree Awareness, Inc. is headquartered in Swedesboro, NJ. The company has been continuously operating since 1993, and is a five-time recipient of Best of Gloucester County. The crew includes Paul, Mia, Mason, Mikaela, and Madison — profiled on the Meet the Team page.
The company’s tagline — Less invasive. More in harmony. — reflects the practice philosophy. Tree Awareness leans toward preservation when the structural data supports it. Annual reassessment cycles. Year-over-year relationships with the same properties and the same trees. Pruning to ANSI A300 standards. Soil work as the foundation of plant health care, not just nutrient injection.
For a site visit, a consultation, or a tree risk assessment, the entry points are the services page and the contact page. For a long-form view of how Paul approaches the work, start with the TRAQ + Resistograph methodology pillar or the CODIT foundational concept on the Tree Tips knowledge base.
For a TRAQ-qualified visual assessment on a tree on your property, request a Tree Risk Assessment →
Three decades of careful, credentialed practice on the same heritage canopy. The story below is the operating principle that hasn’t changed since 1993.
Paul Biester started Tree Awareness in 1993 after a decade in arboricultural services had convinced him most tree-care companies were running the wrong operating model. Too many were selling whatever the customer asked for, treating every job like a transaction, and topping mature trees because it was easier than crown-reducing them properly.
The arboricultural science had moved past that. ANSI A300 standards were established. ISA Best Management Practices were maturing. The credentialed-arborist community in New Jersey was small but real. But the typical tree-service truck rolling through a South Jersey neighborhood didn’t reflect any of it.
The first jobs were small: a few residential clients in the Swedesboro and Mullica Hill area, structural pruning on heritage Pin Oaks, plant-healthcare diagnosis on confirmed Bacterial Leaf Scorch.
Through the 2000s the practice grew steadily. Climbers joined. Equipment expanded to include crane-rental partnerships and grapple-saw trucks. The diagnostic toolkit added Resistograph drill testing and sonic tomography. The credentials stacked up: NJ LTE renewals, TRAQ qualification, ISA membership, eventually TCIA Accreditation.
Thirty-plus years later the business has grown but the operating principle hasn’t. The clients run from single-family homeowners with one heritage Pin Oak to municipal contracts with hundreds of street trees. From family farms with hedgerow specimens to historic-district properties.
The rule we apply on every job is the same one Paul applied on the first job in 1993: less invasive, more in harmony. Cut what has to be cut. Preserve what can be preserved. Document the rest.
Tree care is a credentialed profession. Each license, certification, and standard below shapes how we assess, prune, remove, and document.
All maintained in active, current standing.
Issued by the New Jersey Board of Tree Experts and Tree Care Operators. Required by NJ statute for professional tree-care services. Paul has held LTE #408 in continuous active standing for over two decades.
Tree Risk Assessment Qualification certifying advanced training in systematic, documented assessment. Authorizes Level 2 visual assessments and reports defensible in litigation.
Active membership in the global professional body for arboriculture. Engages with the standards process behind ANSI A300 (pruning) and ANSI Z133 (safety).
Independently-vetted business-quality designation. Audited insurance, safety, training, and customer-experience standards. Tree Awareness has held it through three accreditation cycles.
TCIA safety credential covering ANSI Z133 compliance, OSHA requirements, and the operational safety practices required on credentialed job sites. Renewed 2023.
Continuous arboricultural practice in South Jersey. The credentials reflect formal qualifications; the years reflect pattern-recognition only three decades on the same heritage canopy produces.
Daily practice includes Resistograph drill testing for internal-decay assessment, sonic tomography for non-invasive imaging, air-spade root excavation for root-collar diagnosis, and CTLA Trunk Formula appraisal methodology for documented value calculations on heritage specimens.
Trainer · Instructor · Speaker
Three decades on the rope and in the bucket led to a second role: helping the next generation of arborists work safer, think clearer, and care for trees the way Paul cares for the ones in South Jersey.
Invited as an instructor at the annual TCIA Crane School — an industry-leading continuing-education course where working arborists train on safe crane operations alongside the field’s most experienced practitioners.
Since 2017Presented at the Tree Care Industry Association’s national Expo and at regional industry gatherings — sharing field-tested approaches to risk assessment, structural pruning, and practice-building.
TCIA Member 20+ YearsActive in the Penn-Del Chapter of the International Society of Arboriculture and a long-running mentor to climbers, ground crew, and aspiring NJ Licensed Tree Experts working through their credentialing path.
Continuing EducationEvery job begins with a visual tree risk assessment. Resistograph drill testing when internal decay is suspected. Documentation you can hold onto.
Structural pruning, cabling, plant health care, soil work — interventions that extend a tree’s life before anyone suggests taking it down.
If a tree is unsafe or beyond saving, we remove it with full insurance, ANSI Z133 safety standards, and guidance on NJ Tree Ordinance compliance.
On the property
Every estimate, every risk report, every plan begins with Paul on the ground — reading the tree, the soil, the storm patterns, the structure. Thirty years of South Jersey fieldwork built the diagnostic instinct, and TRAQ qualification keeps it honest.
“Before a saw ever comes out, we understand the tree.”
Operations, crew leadership, and fine-pruning specialists. The people who make every Tree Awareness job happen.
Mia is highly efficient and keeps the workflow running smoothly. From first contact with new clients through team management to project completion, Mia is a vital part of the Tree Awareness team.
Mason leads the day-to-day field crew on Tree Awareness jobs.
The oldest of the Biester children, Mikaela has been involved with Tree Awareness, Inc. since she has taken her first steps. An art teacher by day, she joins the crew during summers and holidays as an excellent climber and tree trimmer.
The middle of the Biester children, Madison is studying veterinary medicine at Lincoln Memorial University and competes in equestrian activities. A crew member during breaks from school.
Mini-loaders, chippers, cranes when the job calls for them. We don’t over-tool a small property and we don’t under-tool a heritage tree. The gear matches the canopy.
Every operator on this gear is trained to TCIA safety standards and ANSI Z133. The crew works to the same standard whether it’s a back-yard pin oak or a 70-foot crane removal.
Best of Gloucester County is a community-voted recognition. TCIA Accreditation is industry-vetted on a multi-year audit cycle. The awards aren’t the work — the work is the work — but they reflect the consistency thirty years produces.
Independently audited by the Tree Care Industry Association. Three full re-accreditation cycles. Currently active.
Practicing arboriculture in South Jersey since 1993. Same heritage canopy, three decades of pattern recognition.
Beyond the formal awards, Paul has participated in the Penn-Del ISA Tree Climbing Championship, the International Tree Climbing Championship circuit, and continuing-education programs at Arbor Expo. The crew participates annually in the Saluting Branches Day of Service, providing pro-bono tree care at veterans’ cemeteries across the region.
