A Global Boom in Fences Is Harming Wildlife

Fence construction is growing fast. An extension of the dingo fence is currently underway. Europe now has more miles of border fence than it did during the Cold War, because of the stout, often impermeable, fences that are going up on national borders. The main threat to Przewalski's gazelle is habitat fragmented by new barriers in China. It is estimated that the American West's fences are nearly three times the distance from the Earth to the moon.

Simple fixes can be made, such as raising the height of the bottom strand to allow animals to jump over the top wire, if you understand the role that fences play in the environment.

In the western US, simple reflectors are being added to fences to allow birds to see the wires. Some ranchers are using portable fencing, moving it from pasture to pasture when needed, rather than leaving it up all the time. Virtual fencing, which is like an invisible fence for dogs, is being used more and more.

Many miles of fence have been removed by tribes, land trusts, ranchers, and government agencies as a better understanding of the role in the natural world emerges. The Absaroka Fence Initiative in Wyoming has taken up miles of unused fencing.

In the right place, fencing can be an essential tool for preservation. New fencing has become an important tool in managing bears near more populated areas. Fenced off chicken coops, beehives, and other bear attractants can be done with stout electrical fences.

There are dozens of underpasses and overpasses on the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Reservation in western Montana that allow wildlife to cross the highway.

One of the pioneers in the field of fence ecology, Arthur Middleton, is an assistant professor of wildlife management and policy at UC Berkeley. He hopes the new focus on these barriers will open people's eyes to the scale of fence effects.

He said that the next steps are to better understand the biological cost of fence-related behavioral changes and find ways to mitigate them.

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