A spark of curiosity in a seemingly ordinary tree leads to extraordinary discoveries about historic apple trees, community, and inquiry in our natural world. Katharine is a Professor of Ecology at University of Colorado Boulder. She is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and a highly-cited author who has written extensively in the areas of ecosystem dynamics and management, ecological restoration, biodiversity, and conservation. Her current research focuses on managing ecosystems in a rapidly changing world. At CU, she leads the Niwot Ridge Long-term Ecological Research Program, a large multidisciplinary project aimed at understanding high-elevation mountain systems; the Rangeland Resilience Project involving researchers and ranchers across the Western US; and the Boulder Apple Tree Project, focusing on discovering and preserving historic apple trees. In 2018, she received the Robert H. MacArthur Award from the Ecological Society of America, a biennial prize given by the Ecological Society of America to an ecologist for their pivotal contributions to the field. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at
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