The Barn Census is a project of the Vermont Division for Historic Preservation, Save Vermont Barns - a project of the Mount Holly Barn Preservation Association, the Preservation Trust of Vermont, UVM Graduate Program in Historic Preservation, Vermont Housing & Conservation Board, Preservation Education Institute, Vermont Department of Tourism and Marketing, and the Vermont Department of Agriculture.

How many barns are there in Vermont? What kind of condition are they in? Are we losing significant numbers each year? What can be done to preserve these icons of our history and landscape? The goal of the Vermont Barn Census is to carry out, for the first time, a state-wide inventory of Vermont's barns that will lay the foundation for further efforts to preserve them.

The project will recruit volunteers in all of Vermont's 251 towns to identify barns and other agricultural outbuildings in their communities. We will develop a web-based barn survey form that volunteers will use to record basic information about the barns as well as a photo. Save Vermont Barns, a program of the Mt Holly Barn Preservation Association, will receive the forms via the internet and compile them in a database. People will be able to access the database on the web and use it to learn about barns in their community and across the state.

The Barn Census will occur mainly over several highly publicized weekends in the spring and fall of 2008, and the spring of 2009. Students from elementary to high school will be welcomed to participate. Volunteers will take a photo and some notes in the field, and then submit the data using the survey form on the web. Local coordinators will help organize and support teams of volunteers who will be recognizable by their Barn Census logo T-shirts. People can survey one barn or many. A kickoff conference will be held in the spring of 2008, and a wrap-up celebration in the fall of 2009.

Barns survive today as both a firm connection to our cultural heritage, and as an integral part of our working landscape. Today barns are at the forefront of public consciousness. With this past winter's late snowfall a number of barns were lost to collapsing roofs. Still more barns are lost every year to deterioration and demolition. Perhaps at no other time has there been more momentum and enthusiasm for inventorying one of the state's most iconic historic resources. The comprehensive Barn Census will result in heightened awareness for these threatened historic resources and will inspire creative solutions for barn preservation. Please let us know if you would like to be part of it!

We are starting a mailing list and will keep you informed. Please e-mail debra.sayers@state.vt.us or call 802-828-3213 to get on the mailing list for the Vermont Barn Census. For more information on the Mount Holly Barn Preservation Association see www.savevermontbarns.org.