Okanogan, Wash. • “Wherever a farm may be located, or whatever may be its production, fence, fence, fence, is the first, the intermediate, and the last consideration,” the farmer and journalist Sereno Edwards Todd wrote in 1860. Fences keep livestock in and predators out, and both were imperative for the settlers drawn to the Great Plains by the government’s promises of free land. But on the Plains in the mid-19th century, newcomers found that timber was scarce, stone walls were impractical and “living fences,” usually thorny hedges of Osage orange, took years to grow.
, is the first, the intermediate, and the last consideration,” the farmer and journalist Sereno Edwards Todd wrote in 1860. Fences keep livestock in and predators out, and both were imperative for the settlers drawn to the Great Plains by the government’s promises of free land. But on the Plains in the mid-19th century, newcomers found that timber was scarce, stone walls were impractical and “living fences,” usually thorny hedges of Osage orange, took years to grow.
The base stations communicate with GPS-enabled collars worn by 145 of their grazing cows, creating a system that the Wilsons can control from a laptop — even while sitting at their kitchen table some 35 miles away. If a cow approaches one of the invisible fence lines, her collar emits a series of warning beeps. If she tries to cross it, the collar releases a low-voltage shock.
While “wildlife friendly” fencing designs that use smooth instead of barbed wire for their top and bottom strands reduce the risk of injury and entrapment, few if any fences are friendly to all species at all times. “There’s wildlife-friendlier fencing,” said Arthur Middleton, associate professor of wildlife management and policy at the University of California, Berkeley, and an author of the Wyoming migration study, “but there’s not really such a thing as wildlife-friendly fencing.
Though ranchers and conservationists have a long history of antagonism in the West, it’s safe to say that no rancher likes the harm physical fencing does to migrating wildlife, and most conservationists recognize that well-managed ranches are easier on an ecosystem than the housing developments that often take their place.
For tribal nations, virtual fencing can enhance wildlife restoration projects and protect treaty hunting rights. As tribes, virtual fencing can help reconnect those places with existing tribal holdings. And while tribal members need fencing for their own livestock, “the tribal way is no lines on a map, no boundary markers,” said Cody Desautel, executive director of the Colville Tribes. “To the extent that we can return the landscape to a natural condition, we’d love to do that.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has funded research on virtual fencing at the University of Idaho and Oklahoma State University, and last April, the Bezos Earth Fund announced a $9.9 million grant to Cornell University for the development of low-cost virtual fencing.
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