Staff
Helen McKay
OBE, BSc, PhD, FICFor, CEnv
OBE, BSc, PhD, FICFor, CEnv
Helen McKay became an FR fellow in 2020
Previously, Helen provided scientific and strategic leadership to the Centre for Sustainable Forestry and Climate Change which comprised 50 staff and 5 Science Groups. She led and completed many large multi-disciplinary projects and has acquired a particular skill in developing and drafting funding bids.
Since 2003, Helen has been an editor of ‘Forestry: An international journal of forest research’ and uses the skills acquired over the years to mentor FR staff in writing peer-reviewed scientific papers.
She led the Forest Research Culture Working Group to explore the cultures operating across staff groups and make recommendations that will ensure a fair and consistent FR culture.
Helen received an OBE in the 2020 New Year’s Honours.
Helen McKay first joined Forest Research in 1988 as a plant physiologist. From 2000-2007, she was a specialist advisor and commissioned research in forest operations, the physical environment, growth and yield models, remote sensing and bio-energy. In 2007, Helen returned to Forest Research and now leads the Centre for Sustainable Forestry and Climate Change. She is a member of the Forest Research Executive Board.
Forest Research
Northern Research Station
Roslin
Midlothian EH25 9SY
UK
W.L. Mason, H. M. McKay, A. Weatherall, T. Connolly, and A.J. Harrison 2012. The effects of whole-tree harvesting on three sites in upland Britain on the growth of Sitka spruce over ten years. Forestry 85, 111-123
H.M. McKay, B. Hudson, R. Carr, C. Beck, S. Ward, H. Snowling, and J. Pendlebury 2010. Woodfuel consumption in Scotland 2005-8. Biomass and Bioenergy 34, 1017-1027
FC and FR publications including official statistics
McKay, H. (ed.) 2011. Short Rotation Forestry: review of growth and environmental impacts. Forest Research Monograph, 2, Forest Research, Surrey, 212pp.
McKay, H. Introduction. In Short Rotation Forestry: review of growth and environmental impacts. Forest Research Monograph, 2, Forest Research, Surrey, p9-11
Contract and project reports
Helen McKay, Steve Croxton, Geoff Hogan, Michael Wall, Susan Weatherstone, Tom Connolly, Will Quick, Jack Forster. 2017. Characterisation of Biomass Feedstocks: Synthesis report of Phase 1 and Phase 2. Report to the Energy Technologies Institute, pp 120.
Helen McKay, Steve Croxton, Geoff Hogan, Michael Wall, Susan Weatherstone, Tom Connolly, Will Quick, Jack Forster. 2017. Characterisation of Biomass Feedstocks: Final report on investigations into the effect of harvest time and variety on willow SRC and the effect of harvest time and storage method on Miscanthus quality. Report to the Energy Technologies Institute pp 87.
Michael Wall, Geoff Hogan, Stephen Bathgate, Helen McKay, and Russell Anderson. 2017. Biomass options for Pen y Cymoedd windfarm. TD JR 167. Report to Natural Resources Wales, pp 87.
Juan Suárez, Jacqueline Rosette, Iain Bye, Ramesh Ningthoujam, Heiko Baltzer, Helen McKay. 2017. Earth Observation Data Integration Pilot, Research Project 9 – Innovative application of remote sensing to forestry management and monitoring. Report to Defra, pp141.
Helen McKay, Steve Croxton, Geoff Hogan, Michael Wall, Susan Weatherstone, Tom Connolly, Will Quick, Jack Forster. 2016. Characterisation of Biomass Feedstocks: Phase 1 report. Report to the Energy Technologies Institute, pp 25.
H McKay and A Harrison. 2011. Best practice guidelines for growing short rotation forests as biomass crops in England. Report to the Department of Energy and Climate Change, 28pp
H McKay, N Dandy, M White and I Tubby. 2011. Quantifying the woodfuel potential and carbon stock of farm woodlands in England. Report to Forestry Commission England
A J Moffat, C P Quine and H McKay. 2010. The state of the natural environment. Land use and the future of forestry. Final Project Report, Government Office for Science, London.
Trade journal and newsletter articles
McKay, H.M. and Harrison, A. 2014. Early results positive for short rotation forestry trial. Forestry and Timber News, June 2014, 13-14
Scientific conferences: presentations or posters
Casella, E., Raumonen, P., Rombourg, R., Hetroy-Weeler, F., and McKay, H 2016. A comprehensive sensitivity analysis of forest tree mock-up reconstruction methods from phase-shift based LiDAR point-cloud data. International Conference on Functional-Structural Plant Growth Modeling, Simulation, Visualization and Applications, FSPMA, Qingdao, China, November 2016.
Casella E., Disney M., Morison J. and McKay H. 2013. tLiDAR methodologies can overcome limitations in estimating forest canopy LAI from conventional hemispherical photograph analyses.
Casella E., Morison J.I.L. & McKay H. 2010 Modelling forest canopy gap fraction from terrestrial laser scanning: trade-off between speed and quality. Mathematical Modelling of Plant Development workshop, Mathematical Biosciences Institute, Ohio State University, September 2010