2026 TRCP Conservation Leadership Award

Eric Siegfried and onX CEO Laura Orvidas received the 2026 Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership Conservation Leadership Award in recognition of the impact that onX's geospatial technology and its partnership with the TRCP have on public land access and conservation policy. The combined efforts of onX and the TRCP identified 16.43 million acres of landlocked public lands across 22 states, an effort that helped drive full, permanent funding of the Land and Water Conservation Fund, elevate public access in federal land policy, and inspire landmark legislation like the MAPLand Act. These results, and the corresponding award, represent the work of many great people.

The team at onX has been building and creating geospatial data since 2009. Public and private land boundaries, roads, trails, and more have been painstakingly stitched together from different federal, state, and local agencies. It has been a long journey for Eric and the onX team to build the mapping app that many know of today. That journey and the countless hours reconciling data laid the foundation that made this work with the TRCP possible. So, the 2026 TRCP Conservation Leadership Award isn’t just Eric’s or Laura’s alone; it belongs to the onX team and countless others.

In addition to the onX team, the TRCP and its vice president of Western conservation, Joel Webster, were pivotal in utilizing onX data to support and drive advocacy. They were a leading force in educating, encouraging, and collaborating with Eric, Laura, and the onX team on applying onX data and geospatial technology as an effective tool for shaping land and conservation policy.

When onX was in its early stages, it struggled to find focused, impactful ways to donate and give back. They wanted to support diverse outdoor recreation opportunities and improve public land access and were looking for the right partners to help advance those goals. The TRCP reached out with big ideas at the perfect time. They wanted to work with the onX team to utilize its data and technology to identify landlocked public lands and educate policymakers about those lands while presenting solutions and initiatives to advance conservation and public access.

So, onX partnered with TRCP to understand the scale of inaccessible public lands and how to improve access to those places. Joel and the TRCP team then played an instrumental part in using that information to help shape federal and state policies on habitat and access.

Together, Eric, Laura, Joel, and the teams at onX and TRCP represent what is possible when innovation, technology, and a deep commitment to the hunting, fishing and outdoor communities come together in service of advocacy and conservation.