Johanna Slijkerman 11th Australian Stream Management Conference 2024

Johanna Slijkerman

Jo is a principal scientist at Water Technology with over twenty years’ experience in vegetation assessment, waterway and catchment management, monitoring, environmental policy and project management. This includes field experience in riparian areas around rivers and wetlands, and in coastal, inland, and alpine zones. She has developed waterway and catchment action plans, and monitoring programs, with stakeholders which identify baseline condition, objectives, management actions, reporting and evaluation requirements. Jo has an excellent understanding of waterway processes, gained through her work with waterway engineers, fluvial geomorphologists, aquatic scientists and agency staff. Jo has managed statewide, multi-disciplinary environmental projects which aim to change and improve the management and monitoring of environmental assets. Examples of this work are the development of a biophysical assessment method for Tasmania’s rivers and streams (the Tasmanian River Condition Index) and the Securing Priority Riparian Areas project in Victoria. The coordination of project teams and stakeholder engagement was a significant component of this work. Jo worked in the Waterway Health team for the Victorian Government for seven years. She has a strong understanding of policy development, strategic planning and legislative frameworks, particularly related to waterway and riparian management in Victoria and nationally. Jo also has an excellent working knowledge of Victoria’s native vegetation and protection legislation and is registered with DEECA as a competent Vegetation Quality Assessment (VQA) assessor. From 2020 to 2024, Jo has been seconded part-time to Melbourne Water’s Healthy Waterways Strategy team to assist with stakeholder engagement and annual reporting of progress towards the Strategy’s 956+ performance objectives. This work has required significant communication and organizational skills. Jo has also completed secondments to North East Catchment Management Authority to assist with flood recovery projects and preparing funding submissions. Jo is passionate about her work, the natural resource management industry, and its community. Jo delivers the ‘Land Law for Managers of Rivers and Land’ course for the Public Land Consultancy, and is on the organising committee for the Wise Water Ways workshop where she presents on Riparian Vegetation assessment, management and monitoring. She was Secretary of the Australian River Basin Management Society (RBMS) from 2011-2016 and has helped to organise several Australian Stream Management Conferences, including 11 ASM.