Virtual — or “invisible” — fences aren’t just for suburban golden retrievers anymore.

In Montana, a new fund has just been established to help farmers and ranchers implement virtual fencing to help reduce physical fences and protect native wildlife and grasslands.

Across the Western United States, physical fencing spans more than 600,000 miles but, according to the World Wildlife Fund, can be detrimental to local wildlife populations. 

“Nothing’s changed with barbed wire fencing in 150 years; nothing’s really changed with fencing on ranches for the last 150 years, until this new technology — virtual fencing — came around,” Brian Yablonski, CEO of the Property and Environment Research Center, told NBC Montana.

The Property and Environment Research Center has allocated $250,000 to be dispersed to applicants who want to pivot to the new solution. 

Virtual fence technology works by outfitting cattle with GPS-enabled collars (that look a lot like chain necklaces) that keep them within a designated location, just like a dog might wear a collar that keeps them in their yard. 

The collars emit a warning sound or a mild static correction if the animal attempts to leave the designated location.

According to WWF, this type of virtual fencing is a “tech revolution” for farmers and ranchers, who may also utilize the solution to assist with rest-rotation grazing. 

Rest-rotation grazing involves moving cattle to a certain area to allow areas of the land to recover and grow new life. Instead of attempting to build or maintain physical fences, farmers can draw a new fence line on their smartphone to modify where their cattle can roam.

“The decision about where and for how long cattle roam can be modified or adapted instantaneously, allowing ranchers to better respond to seasonal forage availability, protect sensitive environments, such as riparian river systems, or manage the growth of invasive plants through grazing,” WWF explained.

WWF’s Sustainable Ranching Initiative has also funded and supported virtual fencing pilot projects in the U.S., with five in Montana and one in South Dakota.

“Part of what our Sustainable Ranching Initiative team at WWF has been doing is trying to support individual ranchers in lowering the risk of adopting certain conservation practices, and also helping people who want to test new technologies and techniques, accomplish that,” said Aaron Clausen, program manager with WWF’s Sustainable Ranching Initiative. 

“Virtual fencing is one of those things that people have an interest in, but it hasn’t been tested at scale.”

As more pilot projects emerge, it’s clear that this technology can also lend itself to conservation efforts.

“Virtual fencing can be a really beneficial tool for endangered species and other species conservation,” Yablonski said.

Prior to establishing the new $250,000 fund, PERC also ran a pilot project over the summer, outfitting 2,000 cows with GPS collars and replacing 16 miles of a ranch’s traditional barbed wire fencing with the virtual alternative.

“This project is pretty unique to the region,” Travis Brammer, the nonprofit’s director of conservation, told Mountain Journal earlier this year.

“It’s one of the only virtual fencing projects where the priority is to remove barbed wire fences.”

Barbed wire fences are a major barrier to wildlife migration in the region, making this project particularly noteworthy to conservationists and ranchers alike.

Virtual fences can help conserve migration corridors for endangered species in Montana, like pronghorn and elk. They can also help reduce cattle conflict with predators like grizzly bears and wolves. And they can block off sensitive ecosystems to help them recover from rogue grazers.

While the method proves to be mostly successful, implementing the technology is pricey, with base stations costing approximately $12,000, along with an annual fee of about $50 per GPS collar.

Funding through PERC and WWF aims to offset these costs. 

Applications for PERC’s new grants are open now for eligible ranchers, landowners, and conservation groups in Montana.

“The purpose of the fund is to try to advance this pioneering, innovative technology in a way that works not only for the rancher but works for conservation outcomes as well,” said Yablonski. “We think that’s a win-win.”

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Header image courtesy of WWF-US/Aaron Clausen