About the Instructors

Mike Bellaus is the Manager of Habitat Restoration at Duke Farms and has been professionally managing both flora and fauna in New Jersey for nearly a decade. After graduating from McDaniel College in 2010, he worked for the New Jersey Invasive Species Strike Team and Monmouth County Park System systematically controlling invasive plant populations. He specializes in deer management with a focus on herd population reduction as well as deer management program creation and implementation. He works annually with the NJ Division of Fish and Wildlife performing deer population distribution surveys and held a position on the Hopewell Township Deer Management Advisory Committee for three years.

Mike Van Clef is the FoHVOS Stewardship Director and also serves as our Invasive Species Strike Team Program Director. He joined FoHVOS in 2007 and co-founded the Strike Team in 2008 with the goal of bringing greater efficiency and effectiveness to invasive species management. Mike has a Ph.D. in ecology from Rutgers University and over 25 years of experience in land stewardship, planning and research, working extensively in the evaluation and management of rare and invasive species and deer management. He has consulted with over 30 organizations in NJ including the NJ Invasive Species Council for which he prepared the New Jersey Strategic Management Plan for Invasive Species.

Fall Invasive Species Workshop