The main purpose of this thesis was to research opportunities for utilizing forest stories in the external communication of the Forest management association (FMA) Päijät-Häme. Earlier forest stories were used in FMA member magazine called Kotimetsä to enliven the factual text. Forest stories were gathered for this thesis from Forest Management Association´s current employees. These stories are essence of the research material and its utilization opportunities in the FMA ´s external communication were researched.

Forest stories were collected for this work from February to March in 2011 by visiting FMA offices and interviewing employees. Stories for this work were told by 22 current employees and 2 retired employees. The total of 133 stories, phrases and poems were accumulated. Also “Metsänhoitoyhdistys Päijät-Hämeen ammattilaisten tarinoita” -story collection was composed as a by-product of this thesis for the use of the Forest Management Association. FMA can utilize this collection in many different ways.

The purpose of thesis was reached because many new usages of forest sto-ries were founded in the FMA´s external communication. Stories can be utilized in the different stories in Kotimetsä-magazine to enliven the factual text and give alternative content. Stories can also be used in FMA ´s Internet pages in the same way as in Kotimetsä-magazine and to attract more and new visitors. Also other utilization opportunities were found and these stories can be used very widely in FMA ´s external communication.