How a Healthy Boreal Forest Helps Birch Syrup Business Thrive

“If the trees are gone, then our livelihood is gone,” says Al McLauchlan, co-owner, along with his wife, of Rocky Lake Birchworks, an eco-friendly, family-owned and operated business that specializes in natural products harvested from the boreal forest.

The boreal region of Canada stretches across more than a billion acres, and is one of the largest intact forest ecosystems on Earth. Pew’s International Boreal Conservation Campaign encourages a balance between development and conservation and works with the people who live there to achieve that goal. People of the Boreal is a multimedia project that tells the stories of those who have the most to gain or lose from decisions about how the region is managed. 

Learn more about Al McLauchlan and his family business, and view the entire People of the Boreal series.