Wetland Ecologist Karen McKee is on a Mission to Save our Coasts

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Karen McKee is a scientist emeritus (retired) with the U.S. Geological Survey, an adjunct faculty member at Louisiana State University and one of the 12 local speakers you can come see speak on Feb. 28 at TEDxLSU 2015. She has a master of science in botany from North Carolina State University and a Ph.D. in botany from LSU, and her research topics include the effect hurricanes have on wetlands, climate change and sea-level rise.

Karen has called Baton Rouge home for more than 35 years and uses her knowledge of Louisiana’s coastline and wetlands to work towards protecting the natural environment the state has left. Her TEDxLSU talk draws on her passion to understand how Louisiana’s ecosystems cope with change and methods for protecting the coastline we have left.

I connected with Karen recently to learn a little more about her life and background. Here are the highlights of our conversation.

What’s your favorite plant? Describe it.

The mangrove, which is a type of tree found along tropical and subtropical coastlines, including Louisiana — and which I’ve spent my scientific career studying.

What is in your fridge?

Duck eggs from a local farmer’s market.

What’s your favorite place in Baton Rouge?

The view of the Mississippi River from the top of the Shaw Center — at sunset.

What’s your most treasured possession?

My oldest treasured possession is a piece of petrified wood I collected as a child. It’s about 30 million years old.

What’s your guilty pleasure TV show?

“The Walking Dead”

What are three things on your bucket list?

1. Take an improv/acting class.
2. Write a science fiction novel.
3. Visit all the major wetlands of the world and make a film about the people who live in them.

TEDxLSU has a mission of creating dialogue in our community. What are we not talking about that we should be?

How we can have more parks featuring natural areas and nature trails to promote community appreciation of our local environment.

If you could send a special invitation to anyone in the community to come to your talk, who would it be and why?

I would invite school children who would learn more about sea-level rise and why it’s important to know about.

Before you get up to do your TED talk, how are you going to pump yourself up?

Deep breathing.

Here’s a time machine: What are you going to do with it?

I would travel 1 million years into the future to see how the Earth has changed and how humans have fared.

If you could ask a question to one of the other TEDxLSU 2015 speakers, what would you ask?

What do you hope to get out of this experience?

To learn more about Karen and TEDxLSU 2015, follow TEDxLSU on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Connect with Karen and her fellow speakers on Feb. 28.