Virtual fencing is still a new and developing technology, but for many ranchers, it has transformed how they raise livestock while protecting and rejuvenating native grasslands and wildlife that rely on intact and healthy working lands.

Join Quivira Coalition and World Wildlife Fund for a two-part webinar series on virtual fencing!

May 12: Join Andrew Jakes, a senior research scientist with the Wyoming Migration Initiative and Wyoming Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, and rancher Leo Barthelmess to learn about the connections between sustainable wildlife habitats and virtual fencing ranch management.

May 19: Interested in virtual fencing but don’t know which technology makes the most sense for your operation? Ask questions and hear from a panel of ranchers on different technologies available and what might be a best fit for you.*

*Quivira Coalition and the Sustainable Ranching Initiative are not endorsing any specific technology. This is an educational opportunity to learn what technologies are available to consumers.

You’ll learn about how virtual fencing has been a major innovation for both conservation and flexible livestock management in the Northern Great Plains, and leave with practical, replicable action items for the lands you steward as a grazier.

About World Wildlife Fund’s Sustainable Ranching Initiative:

The Sustainable Ranching Initiative (SRI) was established in 2011 to develop long-term partnerships with ranchers, rural communities, and landowner-led organizations in the Northern Great Plains to benefit the grassland ecosystem. This sweeping landscape spans over 180 million acres across five U.S. states — Montana, Wyoming, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Nebraska — and two Canadian provinces — Alberta and Saskatchewan. About twice the area of California, the Northern Great Plains is one of only four remaining relatively intact temperate grasslands in the world. In 2025, our program expanded and now seeks opportunities across the entire Great Plains — 700 million acres across Indigenous Nations, Canada, the United States, and Mexico.

SRI works with landowners, rancher-led local organizations, corporations, industry groups, non-governmental organizations, and government agencies to prevent grassland from being converted to cropland, increase adoption of regenerative grazing practices, support forward-thinking land managers, restore cropland or degraded lands back to native grasslands, and restore wetlands.

SRI’s Ranch Systems and Viability Planning network supports ranchers in the Northern Great Plains who want to improve their grazing management practices, increase education and skills related to ranch and grass management, monitor ecological changes over time, and network with other producers on similar paths. Currently, ranches must be in WWF’s SRI focal area of central and eastern Montana, western South Dakota, northeastern Wyoming, and the sandhills of Nebraska.

Through the Ranch Systems and Viability Planning network, WWF is not only supporting individual livestock producers but also supporting community resilience in rural areas by strengthening the grass-based economy.

Andrew Jakes is a senior research scientist with the Wyoming Migration Initiative and Wyoming Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, and is based out of Missoula, Montana. Andrew received his B.S. from James Madison University and his M.S. from Towson University, where he studied beaver habitat selection at the Savannah River Ecology Lab.He then moved out West and settled in Helena in 2002, and worked for federal and state agencies on a variety of species and systems until completing his PhD on pronghorn movement ecology from University of Calgary. He then moved to Missoula to pursue post-doctoral research at University of Montana from 2015-2017, evaluating the effects of fencing on wildlife movement and habitat selection. Since then, he has worked for several non-profit organizations and served as president for the Montana Chapter of The Wildlife Society from 2020-2023. Andrew seeks to use science to guide practical on-the-ground efforts for wildlife conservation and habitat restoration by considering the needs of all stakeholders. His research has focused on understanding the effects of linear features on ecological processes and wildlife use, demography, and behavior. He and his wife have a 15-year-old son, eight-year-old daughter and various pets, including a high-octane four-year-old Vizsla.

 

Leo Barthelmess is a member of a fourth-generation family ranching operation whose members include his wife, parents, and a brother who own and manage the ranch. Leo and his wife, Darla, have three children and five grandchildren, of which several are planning to return to the ranching community in the future. The Barthelmess Ranch has been recognized nationally as the region 5 recipient of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association environmental stewardship award program in 2005. Leo and the ranch continue to search for ways to enhance national food security and provide for sustainable wildlife habitat. With the adaptation of Vence technology, the Barthelmess Ranch continues to move forward in the pursuit to find cost effective ways to regenerate the soil, rangeland health, wildlife habitat and be profitable.