Puustot

Puustot is a Finnish forestry term referring to stands or collections of trees within a forest. The plural form puustot is used when discussing multiple such stands, as opposed to the tree cover or individual trees. In forestry practice, a puusto is a homogeneous management unit defined by similarities in species composition, age structure, density and site conditions, forming the basic unit for planning and inventory.

Stands are delineated through field surveys and sometimes supported by remote sensing; boundaries are updated after disturbances or silvicultural treatments. Data collected for each puusto typically include species mix, age class, mean height, diameter at breast height, basal area, volume, and sometimes site index.

Puustot are used for harvest planning, thinning schedules, protection of biodiversity, and carbon stock estimation; they facilitate growth and yield models. In practice, they serve as the fundamental units in forest management decisions and in the construction of forest development scenarios.

In Finland, puusto classifications are standard in forest inventories and management planning, and are integrated into GIS-based forest management systems. The term is common in Finnish-language forestry literature and aligns with broader concepts such as bestånd in Swedish forestry and stand delineation in international practice.