Come Visit! We are open most afternoons on the weekend.

Most of you are probably aware that DCS has for many years maintained an office on Main Street in Narrowsburg, NY, but you may not have been there recently or know of the work we have done over the past few years transforming that space and its function, led by DCS co-founder Jane Cyphers.

We call it the Storefront Project, and it has turned the office into a community hub connecting all aspects of environmentalism, using means ranging from hard-core scientific education to community storytelling and artistic expression.

Civic engagement is crucial to the efforts of DCS, and our Storefront Project is a vehicle for inspiring that engagement. At the Storefront we share the history of our battle to ban fracking in the Delaware River Basin. Visitors to the Upper Delaware learn how our community worked together to preserve the right to clean air, water, and land—a right which is at the core of the DCS mission statement. Our goal is that all realize that we each need to do our part.

Visitors learn about the current actions DCS is involved in, and how they might contribute, or they learn how our experiences can help them. For example, we might discuss our efforts to pass the Plastic Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act in NYS, or our seminars on how to stop a proposed incinerator in our community, or how to start one’s own environmental organization. We also listen, engaging visitors on topics that particularly interest them. Each conversation broadens the awareness of both parties, and prepares the soil for new activism.

Learn from the voices of the harmed

One of our missions is to give voice to the fracking communities that have been harmed, which the Storefront has furthered by sponsoring three events with the Delaware Valley Arts Alliance to spread awareness about how fracking has transformed communities into sacrifice zones. During a panel discussion, participants learned how frustrating lawsuits with the industry can be, as savings, health, and time with family dwindles.

A second project, the FRACK, CRACK, BOOM, BANG project, was a participatory mural project. The mural wove together stories from the front lines of fracking. Led by artist Frida Foberg, the work was created through a series of community storytelling workshops and public painting sessions. It culminated into a mural, designed with and by people affected by fracking in the Ohio Valley, as well as those living in the Upper Delaware region where fracking is banned. The project was focused primarily on the narratives of Jill Hunkler, Jesse Lombardi, and Felecia Mettler, whose stories reflected a range of personal and collective experiences: loss of connection to home and land, insider witness to industry exploitation, and the emotional toll of grassroots activism.

The third project was the production of “Frack Country,” an album created by Jordan Temchack. Jordan was inspired by the folk-gospel record by the Strange Creek Singers, first released in 1972, and later re-released through Smithsonian Folkways. Excerpts of audio narratives from a bank of fracking stories were used to score original and traditional instrumental pieces. The sequencing of personal stories with songs aligned to capture the devastation of the current fracking issue. [Where can they listen to this?]

Learn about the problems—and the solutions

Posters, QR coded articles, and educational videos are available to help visitors to make connections about the daily choices we all make, that may lead to the destruction of another’s quality of life.

For example, living near a Cracker Plant that produces plastics for synthetic clothing, packaging, and building materials can be unbearable. This awareness may help one to comprehend how the demand for certain products raises the demand for frack gas. This demand then spurs the expansion of these plants. This is the goal of not only the fracking industry, but also the chemical industry.

These industries work hand in hand. There are extensive amounts of toxic chemicals used every day in the production of frack gas and in the production of plastics. The industry lobbyists are intent on everyone thinking they cannot live without plastic packaging, plastic clothing, or plastic building materials. Keeping the demand for frack gas high at any cost, even if it means making the world more toxic, is their number one goal.

Our Love Where You Live wall is devoted to conservation, preservation, and restoration efforts. Another section is devoted to alternative energy solutions. Links to presentations, like the climate scientist Kate Marvel, who was recently hosted by The Deep Water Literary Festival in partnership with DCS, is posted. There are sustainable packaging alternatives on view, like mushroom-based products from Ecovative, info on zero carbon building practices, how to go zero waste, and information on pellet boilers that run on fuel made from locally sourced waste wood. There are educational materials for teachers and students, a puppet movie that tells the entire story of fracking, and much more.

One example of the organizations supported and celebrated on the Love Where You Live wall is Endangered Rainforest Rescue, founded by Alexandra Climent. Alexandra’s work in Panama has been invaluable in not only preserving and saving the endangered native tree species in Panama, but in inspiring visitors to pursue their dreams of preserving the health, beauty and viability of our planet. Alexandra’s awareness and perseverance to fulfill her mission is to be commended and honored, for its worldwide climate mitigation significance as well as her efforts in reforestation on indigenous lands. Alexandra’s work fits in perfectly with our Love Where You Live Wall.

Drop by

Next time you’re in Narrowsburg, drop by and join the conversation. Pick up informational materials about issues that concern you, or tell us what’s been bugging you that maybe we haven’t looked at yet, or browse our Love Where You Live wall. We are open Saturdays from 12 noon to 3pm, but sometimes on an ad hoc basis as well, so glance inside our windows if you happen to be in Narrowsburg. We’d love to see you.