Virtual fencing program gets a grant
By Terry Murry on Friday, April 25th, 2025 in Columbia Basin News Eastern/Southeast Oregon News More Top Stories Northeastern Oregon News
GILLIAM COUNTY – The Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board has approved a $116,852 grant to launch a new virtual fencing program as ranchers attempt to return cattle to their lands in Gilliam, Morrow, and Wheeler counties following the catastrophic Lone Rock Fire. The grant was awarded to the Gilliam County Soil and Water Conservation District, Sustainable Northwest, and other partners.
The OWEB grant is earmarked for labor costs that will help train the ranchers on the installation and use of the virtual fencing. Partners that include Oregon State University and the Natural Resource Conservation Service have also made donations. In addition, the Ford Family Foundation has provided $250,000 to purchase the fence.
“Ranchers in Gilliam, Morrow, and Wheeler counties were looking at millions of dollars to rebuild all of the hardwire fencing ranchers lost last year in the fire,” Dallas Hall Defrees, Sustainable Northwest’s regenerative ranching program director, said. “With virtual fencing, the cost is much lower.”
Virtual fencing is a system that uses GPS, wireless communication, and animal-worn collars to create invisible boundaries for livestock. The collars provide audio cues and, occasionally, mild stimuli to guide them. Ranchers can control and modify these boundaries remotely with their software.
“Virtual fencing is incredibly flexible and much less costly than traditional fencing,” Gilliam Soil and Water Conservation District Manager Herb Winters said. “This project will allow our local, family-owned ranches to get their cattle back on the land and stay in business while keeping cows away from sensitive areas like rivers and streams. It also makes it easier for ranchers to rotate cattle to different pastures at different times, which is better for the land and the cows.”
The Lone Rock Fire started in Gilliam County on July 13, 2024, and burned approximately 137,000 acres destroying more than 1,100 miles of fencing. The cost to replace that fencing at $5 a foot totals more than $25 million. The project will help private landowners install virtual fencing throughout the Upper Rock Creek watershed, which includes the fire’s footprint and an additional 40,000 acres. Once the project is complete, it will be the largest area of land managing cattle with virtual fencing in the state of Oregon. The ranchers will be trained on how to use it and will be supported for three years as they continue to apply the new technology.
File photo of the Lone Rock Fire
