I have so much to unpack following last week’s World Trails Conference in Ottawa, Canada! The conference gathered 400 people from 35 countries and was a truly inspiring event. It was both a thrill and an honor to be among a global audience that was thinking about how trails can have a greater impact on planet Earth.
Delegates from across the world gathered at a heavy time last week in Ottawa. The first day of the conference coincided with Canada’s National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. At the same time, people from communities impacted by Hurricane Helene were either delayed in arriving or couldn’t make it at all. And those representing the Lebanon Mountain Trail were dealing with bombings back at home. Surely, it wasn’t an easy time to be gathered together, but the conference seemed to provide a healing, connective, hope-filled space. What are my top takeaways from the experience?
- The call to action(s) was clear and more insistent than what I was expecting, and I’m glad that was the case. We were urged to do better and do more when it comes to trails. Time and energy was focused on important and sometimes difficult topics, which are noted in my other other takeaways. I appreciated the encouragement to elevate our thinking about trails and our responsibility to the world around us.
- “You can’t bake a cake without flour.” Julie Sawchuck of Sawchuck Accessible Solutions said this in the context of accessibility. It’s very best to plan for accessibility (and inclusion, conservation, and other considerations, for that matter) on the front end of trail planning. Though we can go back and make improvements retroactively, ask yourself, “What are we baking into this trail?” What are the key ingredients, and who needs to be involved?
- We have to more intentionally align trails with conservation goals. One of the keynotes, Harvey Locke, gave a moving talk about how trails can support nature. He referenced Helene as “a climate-exacerbated storm…happening in real time, not a future concern.” (And now Hurricane Milton is expected to be catastrophic as well.) This is all happening “in real time.” We must acknowledge the situation we are in and find more ways for trails to contribute to conservation. Locke talked about the Global Biodiversity Framework, with a vision that we can live in harmony with nature and halt the loss of biodiversity. He spoke of a nature-positive, carbon neutral world and noted that Target 12 in the framework includes trails. A breakout session on the role of trails in conservation addressed this same topic, one of the speakers urging that we think systemically about linking parks via trails. One of the systems the panel spoke about was the Pan American Trail (when complete, going from Alaska to Patagonia). Treating trails as wildlife corridors can contribute to biodiversity, species movement, and climate. This may seem rather unrelatable to those of you working on shorter trails, but certainly there are ways your trails can contribute to conservation. Another speaker, Christine Loth-Bown, addressed the unfortunate truth that sometimes trails can disturb wildlife. If we’re willing to admit this, we can look for solutions. For example, my friend Ernesto Viveiros de Castro provided me with a huge “a-ha!” moment when he talked about a trail skirting a property rather than running right down the middle, reducing the disturbance. In working with rail-trails, I’m so accustomed to the trail in the middle, with a certain number of feet/meters on either side. Does it truly have to be that way?
- Volunteers make the world go round! Trails in most places rely upon the work of volunteers. (The World Trails Network is run by volunteers, by the way!) I attended a site visit to Wakefield, Quebec, a rural village with a nicely maintained trail system. The work of the all-volunteer trail group is impressive. Their work reminded me of many of you. If you’re feeling beleaguered in this challenging work, I might recommend that you read an older Substack post of mine: Why Trail Work Matters. I’ll post some photos of the Wakefield visit in a day or two (and a conference album later today). If you don’t already follow Cycle Forward on Facebook, here’s the link.
- Trails are (usually) regenerative and position us to take better care of our places. Emilie Comeau-Sinclair of Destination Canada spoke about regenerative tourism. If you haven’t heard the term before, you’ll be hearing it more moving forward. Comeau-Sinclair asked us, “What is being regenerated?” Trails have the capability, she says, of being regenerative for our places, local people, small businesses, and ecosystems. She also put forth this important question: “What is the care that my place needs?” What if we always asked this question, not just when thinking about trails? WOW, the possibilities! She also spoke about building magic between visitors and hosts. I remember thinking that to do that, residents first have to believe that there’s magic in trails. (It always comes down to having a trail culture, doesn’t it?) And when we do, the magic between visitor and host is possible. The magic of it all is possible. May we move further and further into a place of magic and caretaking!
- We will always have more to work on, but trails inspire. Plain and simple. One speaker, Pedro da Cunha e Menezes, referred to trails as being “never-ready and always changing, like a city.” It’s true, Pedro. But know that trails inspire, no matter their incomplete state, where people are, or how long they’re out there. As Harvey Locke said, “It’s not where it goes. It’s where it is. (The trail) starts the moment I’m on it.” And yet, even those only partaking in trails locally tend to appreciate when their stretch of trail is part of something bigger.
