Meet Our Instructors

  Peter Nieves-Sosa has been a crane operator since 1999. Peter has 25 years of crane experience, and specializes in large and hazardous tree removal. He is a member of the ISA and TCIA, and a NCCCO Certified crane operator. He started The Crane Man, Inc. in 2008, and is the founder of the Crane Safety Climber School which is now in its 13th year. His philosophy is educating through sharing personal experiences.

 Mike Teti is a CTSP and ISA certified arborist with more than 30 years experience in the tree care industry. He began his tree climbing career at the age of 20 working as a groundsman and quickly fell in love with the outdoor aspect of the job. Once he began climbing, he knew that in the trees is where he wanted to be. His career has taken him to the tops of some of the tallest trees in some of the most beautiful locations across the country. He now owns and operates his own tree care business, Custom Climber Services, and resides in Bucks County, Pennsylvania with his wife and two boys. 

Mike has been an integral part of the Crane Safety Climber School since it's inception in 2011.

 Derrick Martin is a professional arborist and competitive tree climber based out of central Pennsylvania and has been in the tree care industry for around 19 years. 

Derrick is currently self-employed as a contract tree climber, has also worked as a general foreman, and was in charge of safety and training at Good's tree care. 

You can catch Derrick competing at regional and national climbing competitions and as an instructor at ArborFest EXPO. 

He is also an ambassador for Notch and Aspen Fuel.

  Dan Lawton began climbing trees for fun in 2007 while completing his electrical apprenticeship. While volunteering at the NJ Arborist Work Day in 2009 Dan met some good folks that lead me down the right path to begin tree work as a career. He started competing in ISA Climbing competitions and became a full time climber in 2010. Dan has been working with cranes for tree removals regularly since 2011. He created Lawton Tree Care to work as a contract climber in 2016, which lead him down a path heavily focused on crane assisted removals. He is a fervent promoter of long crane slings for stabilizing picks with proper sling angles, minimal movement, and zero shock load on the crane. Lastly, he created a couple of the most stabile cuts currently used in the industry, “ The T Cut”, and most importantly, “The M-Cut ©”.

  Steve Connally is an ISA Certified Climbing Arborist for 26 years, CTSP, EHAP, NCCCO Licensed Crane Operator, TCIA Crane Operations Specialist Instructor, Instructor Crane Safety Climber School, Instructor The Ascension Group NW, Research Climber The College of William and Mary, The Center for Conservation Biology, Veteran US Navy, Captain/Paramedic Retired, he has been with Norfolk Fire Rescue for 26 years, and is the Owner Adaptable Aerial Solutions LLC.  

Dave has been the technical consultant and trainer at Wespur Tree Equipment for the last 15 years, and operator of Ascension Group since 2015. Dave is an ISA Certified Arborist for 24 years, and has been an instructor for the Crane Safety Climber School since 2015. 

Dave is currently a SPRAT level 1 rope technician and a wilderness first responder. 

Dave gained some of his experience as a volunteer firefighter, member of the Hot Shots, timber faller, and as a fisherman on the Bering Sea.

 Paul Biester is the founder CEO

Of Tree Awareness Inc

A TCIA Accredited company since 2017.

They have been in business since 1993 and Paul’s career started in 1984.

A licensed tree, expert in the state of New Jersey.

A CTSP  since 2017

Paul has almost 40 years of tree climbing experience and was an early adopter using knuckleboom cranes doing tree removals.

A trainer with the CAA for over 20 years and with crane school since 2017

Also a speaker at TCIA EXPO,ARBOR expo, and Garden state tree conference.

“I consider myself a student first and still have an open mind to adopt new gear, techniques , and approaches. . I love sharing my passion for the trade that has taken care of me for 40 years.”

Rob Thigpen has been in the Tree care industry for 35 years.
He is a 2 time Penn-Del tree climbing competition winner with over 25 years of competition experience.
Rob is a lead Instructor for NATS going on 6 years now.
He has 15 years as a volunteer fire fighter with numerous NFPA certifications including structural fire, vehicle rescue, rope rescue and confined space.
He can also be seen helping at local levels with competitions and other industry related events to give back to the industry. 

  Chris Girard is an NH and ISA Certified Arborist. He is also a full-time production climber, SPRAT Level 1 Rope Access Technician, author, and instructor from Gilmanton, N.H. Having grown up working with trees, Chris started off logging and is a former Certified Professional Logger. He has a passion for technical rigging work and was one of the first Crane Safety Climber School students back in 2010, before transitioning to an instructor. Chris is the owner and operator of Girard Tree Service, LLC along with his wife Heide.

From Horseshoe Valley Ontario, Devon has been in the tree industry for 30 years, he has run his own tree & crane business for 26, ISA Certified Arborist, has been climbing for 24 years, and working with cranes for over 20. Devon has been a crane operator specializing in tree removals for the last 9 years. Devon loves to train, help & teach other arborists crane work and pass along the knowledge he's gained over the years as well and keep on learning new & updated techniques himself. When not doing trees Devon like to spend time with his daughters, ride motorcycles, ATV’s and drive his jeep.

 After graduating from Penn State Mt. Alto with a degree in Forest Technology, Bryan worked as a climber/ground crew for three years before starting Climb High Tree Service in 2002. After many years of hiring in a stick crane, a knuckleboom crane was added to Climb High Tree Service’s equipment in 2016, and two years later was upgraded to a new knuckleboom crane with a grapplesaw attachment. In 2022 Climb High Tree Service was sold which enabled Bryan to transition to offering knuckleboom crane/grapplesaw services to other tree care companies full-time through CHT Crane Service, LLC. Bryan is an ISA Certified Arborist®(PD-1428A) with a TRAQ credential, a TCIA Crane Operator Specialist, and is a certified articulating crane operator through both NCCER and NCCCO. 

  Lawrence started his 20 year tree career in Montgomery county for Arader Tree service. After which he went on to spend a decade in NYC working for the Brooklyn Forestry Dept, then Central Park, all while maintaining a small contract climbing service. He's been a full time contract climber in the Bay Area for the last +8 years. In recent seasons he's gotten into sharing some of his experiences in the hopes that they can be helpful to other up and coming climbers. He's very honored to be able to help with the Crane Climber Safety School that he attended for 2 years.