Just over a month ago, The Ricketts Conservation Foundation (RCF) and The Property and Environment Research Center (PERC) announced an exciting collaboration to deploy virtual fencing technology on eight participating ranches spanning across the Yellowstone Ecosystem. With the ink on the press release barely dry, our team hit the ground running in the field. Over the past few weeks, we have transitioned from concept and planning to implementation and action. Spring has been a season of momentum, collaboration, and hands-on work.

Site Visits

Projects of this scale don’t happen single-handedly, but rather when a dedicated group of livestock producers, land managers, government agencies, and conservationists work together towards a common goal. Recently, RCF and PERC, along with representatives from various state agency and non-government organization (NGO) partners, completed successful site visits to all eight participating ranches. These visits spanned a range of landscapes, from Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and United States Forest Service (USFS) allotments to state and private rangelands. Each visit allowed us to identify specific conservation goals for each unique operation – whether that meant implementing a grazing rotation, protecting riparian areas for native trout, managing invasive weeds, or mitigating wildlife-fence conflicts. These conversations laid the groundwork for virtual fence strategies tailored to reflect the unique objectives and needs of each operation.

Collaboration in action: partners from RCF, PERC, Wyoming Game and Fish Department (WGFD), Trout Unlimited (TU), Greater Yellowstone Coalition (GYC) and the USFS (plus the pups) meet with producers to discuss trout spawning redds and potential uses of virtual fence to limit livestock impacts to stream beds (Figures 1-3).

Baseline Ecological Monitoring 

Using virtual fencing can accomplish incredible conservation outcomes, such as healthier soils, rejuvenated riparian areas, and unobstructed wildlife migration pathways. But to prove it works, we first need data to back up these claims.  

Ecological monitoring is officially underway at the Lucky 7 Angus Ranch in Boulder (WY), the XX Ranch in Auburn (ID), and with the Goat Guy in Ashton (ID). We will add additional ranches in the coming weeks. Thus far, our monitoring efforts are tracking vegetation species composition and nutritional quality, invasive weed cover, soil health, riparian condition, and wildlife movements. By establishing baseline metrics prior to livestock turnout, we can track whether grazing management with virtual fence results in desirable ecological change over time. The data we gather this season will serve as the foundation for evaluating whether or not virtual fence helped producers accomplish their ecological, economic, and social objectives across the four-year duration of their projects. 

Science on the range: Establishing long-term ecological monitoring to track forage quality, invasive weed cover, and soil health (Figures 4-6). 

Livestock Online! 

Over the past month we have assisted ranchers with the physical collaring process. Fitting livestock with GPS-enabled collars is the last step before they are trained and head out to summer pastures. These collars allow producers to manage pasture boundaries from their smartphone or laptop as well as track individual animal location and behavior.

Collaring cattle at different operations throughout the Yellowstone Ecosystem (Figures 7-9), including cattle that are headed to the Upper Green River as a result of the Dollar Lake Fire collaboration.

What’s Next? 

As producers continue towards livestock turnout on summer range, their virtual fences will go live and shape grazing management across the Yellowstone Ecosystem. We will continue to support our ranch partners over the coming months, as they integrate virtual fence technology into their daily operations. RCF will also continue to conduct monitoring for ecological, economic, and social outcomes. On a final note, we are incredibly grateful to the visionary producers and partners who are willing to test these new tools, share their knowledge, and push the boundaries of what conservation can look like on working lands. 

On August 21, 2025, a summer thunderstorm developed across the western Wyoming skies.  The area was ripe for wildfire as there had been little rain in the region since spring.  We distinctly recall this storm, because the cell moved eastward across Jackson Fork Ranch during the Saving Yellowstone Conservation Summit.  Not long into the afternoon sessions, cell phone emergency tones began sounding in the tent, warning of a nearby fire.  As the afternoon progressed, Summit participants could see an expanding plume of dark smoke, 28 miles to the northeast of us. While we were not in harm’s way, others were.

As is the case with most late-summer forest fires, the Dollar Lake Fire was most likely lightning-caused. Burning in thick timber on the Bridger-Teton National Forest’s (BTNF) Pinedale Ranger District and driven by strong winds, it burned 600 acres within hours. It eventually grew to over 19,000 acres according to the Teton Interagency Fire incident management page (Figure 2). 

The aftermath of a wildfire presents a unique opportunity for positive collaboration among multiple user groups with a strong connection to the resource.  Fire is an important part of landscape ecology and must be considered as part of the United States Forest Service’s (USFS) multiple use management mandate. There are many factors that play into fire recovery, where multiple use encourages collaboration, finding solutions that build relationships, exploring different opportunities for wildfire recovery, and leveraging funding from different sources to mitigate or offset costs for lost and damaged infrastructure.

The USFS requires that livestock on permitted grazing allotments be excluded from burned areas for a minimum of two years, or until 60% of vegetative ground cover is achieved in the area burned. However, wildfires often don’t burn landscapes evenly, nor do they discriminate against jurisdictional boundary lines, or fencelines.  In the Dollar Lake Fire, the burned area covered only a portion of two different pastures within the allotment, leaving unburned vegetation available for livestock consumption.  The fire also burned several miles of physical fencing. Replacing them by the onset of grazing season was unreasonable, which left the permittees with few practical options that would allow them to graze the area in 2026.

One out-of-the-box solution suggested when reviewing options for the 2026 grazing season was the use of virtual fencing. Along with a modified livestock grazing rotation and stocking rate, permittees chose to explore the idea of virtual fence technology to exclude cattle from the burned area. 

In 2024, the Ricketts Conservation Foundation established the Virtual Fencing Conservation Initiative and partners with producers on a variety of projects scattered across the Yellowstone Ecosystem. Virtual fencing is where livestock are fitted with a GPS collar that is programmed with “virtual” fences, or perimeters, within which livestock are contained. This prevents them from accessing burned areas, allowing for adequate vegetation recovery. 

The Ricketts Conservation Foundation is thrilled to partner with the permittees, the Sublette County Conservation District, and the USFS in 2026 and 2027 on the Dollar Lake Fire virtual fence implementation.  Using virtual fence to exclude livestock from grazing the burned area is key. This will result in two years of grazing deferment, allowing for successful wildfire recovery in the area.  Equally important, the collaboration creates an opportunity for livestock producers to implement a novel technology year-round. The economic, social, and conservation benefits on private land can be further explored by both livestock producers and the Ricketts Conservation Foundation using the captured results.  We hope that this approach of simultaneously addressing the concerns of land managers and producers can become more widely used within the Yellowstone Ecosystem and beyond.