INTERNATIONAL TRAIL SUMMIT
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 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 alongside attendees from as far away as Saudi Arabia and Taiwan.
The trails summit was packed with speakers, presentations, and networking opportunities. Conliffe gained a wealth of knowledge to support JTN’s work in Jamaica, including a half-day field event focused on drone mapping techniques and demonstrations of 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 the theory of trail design, construction, and management, followed by a practical outdoor session using various tools for trail building and remediation.
Conliffe also spent a day hiking in Devil's Lake State Park in the Baraboo area of Wisconsin, using the time in nature to reflect on insights from the conference.
“The exposure influenced my perspective,” Conliffe said. “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.”
Follow-up activities continued after the summit, including a JTN Zoom meeting with Jon Altschuld of Chinook Landscape Architecture, which specialized in trail design and construction, as well as an online meeting with pixeltrail.co, a provider of trail management software.
