In December 2024, Friends of Jamaica collaborated with the Jamaica Trail Network (JTN) and The Artvark Foundation to support Conliffe Wilmot-Simpson’s attendance at the International Trails Summit in Madison, Wisconsin. Thanks to the generosity of 46 donors, the campaign successfully raised $4,058 USD.
“I would like to once again express my appreciation to the FOJ for facilitating my GoFundMe effort,” Conliffe shared. “The mission to Madison to attend the International Trails Summit was a success.”
The 2025 International Trails Summit gathered over 800 trail professionals, advocates, and enthusiasts from around the globe. Conliffe, along with Paul Sully and David Hall from the Forestry Department, proudly represented Jamaica. There were attendees from places as far away as Saudi Arabia and Taiwan.
The trails summit was packed full of speakers, presentations and networking opportunities. Conliffe is bringing back a wealth of knowledge to support JTN’s work in Jamaica. This includes a half day field event of drone mapping techniques and demonstrations of the specialized machinery used in trail building.
As part of his experience, Conliffe participated in a pre-summit Trail Master Lite Workshop led by the renowned Michael Riter. Topics included theory of trail design, construction and management. The second day was a practical where time was spent outdoors using various tools to do trail building and remediation.
Conliffe also spent a day of hiking in the Devils Lake State Park in the Baraboo area of Wisconsin. Being out in nature and reflecting on the information from the conference was inspirational and productive.
“The exposure has influenced my perspective,” Conliffe says. “Trails are not just a pathway to get from point to point through a forest, but an avenue for immersion in a much larger interconnected experience with a raft of personal and societal benefits.”
The follow-up activities are continuing. Last Thursday there was a JTN zoom meeting with Jon Altschuld of Chinook Landscape Architecture, which specializes in trail design and construction. There was another online meeting with pixeltrail.co, who are providers of trail management software.
Collage of the International Trail Summit in Madison. Photos provided by Conliffe.
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