Lesli Allison cut her teeth on a 50,000 acre ranch in Southeastern Colorado—a massive land management experience that taught her the importance of private lands and their role in the conservation conversation. On episode 8 of the Funding Rural podcast, Lesli shares how ranchers and farmers are leading the way on innovative climate and environmental projects, and the challenges of accessing resources including research. She touches on the importance of showing up to better understand the challenges facing communities and discusses how conservation projects require on-the-ground collaborations because they have a long runway, and can require multi-year funding. Lesli reminds us that it's important to direct funding to those organizations within the community where the issues are happening—not just the national groups—in order to ensure project sustainability.