michael catania

Michael Catania, who serves as President of Conservation Resources, has been extensively involved with conservation, environmental and land use policy issues in New Jersey for the last 30 years. An attorney, he began his career with the Office of Legislative Services, the central non-partisan staff agency for the New Jersey Legislature. From 1974 until 1981, he staffed the various agricultural and environmental committees of the Legislature, and drafted many of New Jersey's conservation and environmental laws, including the Pinelands Protection Act, the Conservation and Historic Preservation Restriction Act, the Natural Areas System Act, the Wild and Scenic Rivers System Act, as well as several of the Green Acres Bond Acts.

In 1981, he became the first Director of the Office of Regulatory Services at the NJDEP, where he was responsible for overseeing the adoption and enforcement of all DEP regulations. In 1986, he became the Deputy Commissioner of DEP, and served in that capacity under two Governors and three commissioners until 1990. After teaching environmental law and policy for three semesters as Visiting Professor at the Eagleton Institute of Politics and Cook College of Rutgers University, he was the Executive Director of The Nature Conservancy of New Jersey from June of 1991 until July of 2003. During his tenure, The Nature Conservancy became one of the largest and most effective non-profit conservation organizations in the state. As Executive Director, Michael was responsible for the completion of more than 350 transactions which resulted in the permanent protection of more than 43,000 acres, as well as the largest conservation capital campaign in state history, the $60 million Campaign to Save the Last Great Places of New Jersey.

He also currently serves as a trustee and the Chair of the New Jersey Natural Lands Trust, and as trustee and President of the Schiff Natural Lands Trust. Previously, he served as a founding member and Co-Chair of the Stockton Alliance, and was the Vice Chair of the Mendham Borough Environmental Commission. In 1998, he was the Co-Chair of the Coalition to Preserve Natural Resources, which ran the successful statewide campaign for voter approval of Public Question # 1, which dedicated some $98 million per year for open space and farmland preservation for each of the next thirty years. More recently, in 2003, he was the founder and Chairman of the Coalition for Conservation, which conducted the successful campaign for a ballot question to increase the bonding cap for the Garden State Preservation Trust by $150 million.

Michael holds a BA and MA in Political Science from Rutgers University, as well as a JD from the Rutgers School of Law in Camden. He is a member of the NJ Bar, and has been admitted to practice law in New Jersey since 1981.

jan rosenfeld

Jan Rosenfeld, who serves as Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer for Conservation Resources, was a Vice President in the Municipal Finance Department of Goldman Sachs for 14 years from 1984 until 1998. In that position, she specialized in bond transactions for universities and other non-profit organizations. After leaving Goldman Sachs, Jan served as a strategic business consultant to internet startup companies.

Prior to her career in public finance, she worked for two years as Project Coordinator for the New Jersey Conservation Foundation, where she focused on farmland preservation and pinelands preservation issues. More recently, Jan completed 10 years as a member of the Board of Trustees of the New Jersey Conservation Foundation, where she served as a member of the Executive, Finance, and Investment Committees.

Jan also currently serves on the Garden State Preservation Trust and as trustee and Board Chair for CEDAM International, a marine conservation organization. As a Director of CEDAM, she founded and raised funds for the Lloyd Bridges Memorial Scholarship, which provides grants to high school teachers to participate in CEDAM expeditions.

Jan received her MBA from the Amos Tuck School at Dartmouth College, an MA in Public Policy from the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University, and her BA from Colorado College.

 jon wagar

Jon Wagar , who serves as Vice President for Conservation Programs, has had extensive experience with land acquisition, stewardship and restoration projects on behalf of several non-profit conservation organizations during the last five years. From 1999 through 2004, Jon was a member of the staff of the New Jersey Conservation Foundation, where he served as Director of Stewardship and Assistant Director of Land acquisition and Stewardship. Jon also managed the Garden State Greenways Project for NJCF, and he has extensive experience using Geographic Information Systems and Global Positioning Systems for conservation purposes.

Jon currently serves as Chair of the Mendham Township Open Space Trust Committee and Director of Land Acquisition and Stewardship for Schiff Natural Lands Trust in Mendham. He has served as a Trustee of the Washington Township Land Trust, the NJ Forest Stewardship Committee, and the Pinelands Forestry Advisory Committee.

He has also worked for Care International in Guatemala , where he helped subsistence farmers to improve their forestry and agricultural practices. In Guatemala , he also taught botany and plant physiology at an extension campus of the National University . Jon has also worked as a field botanist for the USDA Forest Service, and managed a research project that studied the regeneration of Atlantic white cedar in the New Jersey Pine Barrens.

Jon holds a BS in biology from Richard Stockton College , as well as a Master of Forestry Degree from Yale University School of Forestry and Environmental studies, where he worked as a field forester for Yale's School Forests.

 julie gause
Julie Gause, who serves as part-time Program Coordinator, joined the staff of Conservation Resources in January of 2007. Julie comes to CRI directly from an internship with the Morris Land Conservancy, where she assisted with the preparation of open space plans. A certified teacher, she taught elementary school in Montgomery County, Maryland from 1986 until 2004. Julie has also served as an editor for the Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) science education newsletter, as a science trainer for MCPS, and as a curriculum writer for MCPS and Discovery Education. She has also implemented several grant-funded environmental projects, including stream projects, storm drain painting, tree planting and schoolyard habitat.

She currently serves as a member of the Chester Township Environmental Commission, and as a volunteer for the Chester School District. Julie holds a M.Ed. in Science Education from the University of Maryland, and a B.S. in Biological Sciences from Cornell University.

consulting partners

anne heasly
Anne Heasly, who serves as a consultant to Conservation Resources, is a proven conservationist with extensive experience in all aspects of land acquisition and management for rare species. She has been successful at establishing new projects and programs as well as developing and implementing new strategies that have resulted in the conservation of natural resources. From 1992 to 2005 she worked for The Nature Conservancy in New Jersey. While working at TNC, Anne developed the Conservancy’s first Conservation Area Plan for the Pine Barrens, an area encompassing 1.1 million acres. She was director of the Pine Barrens Field Office and managed seven conservation staff and an operating budget of over $500,000 and served on the chapter management team. Previously, Anne served as a consultant to several non-profits as a member of the Delta Group. 

Anne has a Masters of Landscape Architecture and a Certification in Urban Design from the University of Washington. She earned her Bachelor of Science in Natural Resources, from Cornell University and is a certified Landscape Architect in the State of Maryland and New Jersey. She is also a Professional Planner and a member of the American Institute of Certified Planners.

robert perry
Robert Perry, who serves as a consultant to Conservation Resources, worked at the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation in New Jersey for eleven years, first as its Education program officer, and then as the Director of its Environment and Welfare of Animals programs.  In 2005, he moved to North Carolina’s Outer Banks region, where he manages the greenhouses of The Elizabethan Gardens and runs his own consulting firm, Vox Biologica.  His personal passion centers squarely on the preservation of biological diversity, particularly all the unsung life forms (e.g., plants, toads, salamanders, corals, minnows and fungi) that sustain the “big” organisms that people know better and to which they therefore devote the lion’s share of conservation activity and resources.

Before working at the Dodge Foundation, Robert taught the sciences at an arts-oriented private school in Brooklyn.  He also taught educators for several years at City College through its Environmental Studies program.

Robert holds a masters degree from the City University of New York and a bachelors degree from Cornell University.

michael van clef
Michael Van Clef, who serves as a consultant to Conservation Resources, is an expert in rare and invasive species management and natural resource management and policy. He brings over fifteen years of ecological experience in non-profit, consultant and university settings. Michael worked for The Nature Conservancy in New Jersey as Director of Science and Stewardship. While at TNC, Michael contributed to an ecoregional planning process by determining priority sites for conservation in New Jersey. He created “site conservation plans” that identified target species & communities, their threats, strategies for conservation, and measurements of conservation success. He was also in-charge of managing approximately 14 nature preserves in Northern New Jersey consisting of 5,000 acres and supervised two land stewards, seasonal interns, and volunteers. Michael was a member of New Jersey’s Invasive Species Council.

Michael received his B.S. in Biology and his Ph.D. in Ecology from Rutgers University. He runs an environmental consulting company called Ecological Solutions.