Heritage Barns
Heritage Barns I’m Lacy Gray with Washington Ag Today. Many iconic barns around the state that might have been torn down due to age and disrepair have been given a second life thanks to grant funding from the Washington Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation. State Historic Preservation Officer and Program Administrator Allyson Brooks provides some history on the Heritage Barn Rehabilitation Grant Program. BROOKS: The program started 2007. It generated from King County. The King County historic preservation community along with the agricultural community in King County and some local historians were very concerned about deteriorating barns in King County and had come up with a local King County program. There was a meeting where the King County staff were talking to Senator Jim Honeyford from Yakima and his wife and they were discussing the local barn program and everyone thought it was really something that needed to go statewide. And go statewide it did with a bill for a statewide program receiving tremendous bi-partisan support and passing the legislature with only two no votes. BROOKS: I believe legislators really understood the need for preservation of barns. And while sometimes on the surface when we talk about Heritage Barns people might say, “well, there’s more important things for the government to do than take care of barns”, a lot of people forget that you can’t farm without a barn. For the agricultural industry itself the importance of maintaining barns as a piece of the agricultural economy is critical. Tomorrow Brooks will talk about the success of the program and the application process for barn owners interested in becoming eligible for grant funding. Thanks for listening. That’s Washington Ag Today. I’m Lacy Gray on the Ag Information Network.