Project to record life in Genesee River

On a sunny, breezy afternoon at Turning Point Park, all eyes were on a small green cube hard by the far shore of the Genesee River.

Was it in the right place? It was more than an idle question, because this was not just any green cube.

Rather, the cube is at the heart of an educational and artistic exercise that renowned photographer David Liittschwager has undertaken in select locales around the world, from a Polynesian coral reef to Central Park in New York City.

The exercise, known as One Cubic Foot, documents the incredible diversity of animal and plant life that can be found almost anywhere if you look hard enough.

Now, Liittschwager has brought One Cubic Foot to the Genesee.

For a 24-hour period that begins Monday, Liittschwager will make a record of every species that passes through his green metal frame, which is exactly one cubic foot in size. He then will make photographs — stunning detailed portraits — of that fauna and flora, and experts from the Smithsonian Institution will join him to do DNA typing of the organisms.

“We’re going to look at it with a pretty good magnifying glass,” he said.

Liittschwager’s visit here, which also includes an Aug. 20 lecture at the George Eastman House, was sponsored by the Seneca Park Zoo Society.

“You can lecture on biodiversity, and that’s great. But to give people that moment when they see a sea slug, say, is so beautiful, you begin to inspire them,” said Pamela Reed Sanchez, the zoo society’s executive director.

She said the public reaction to a zoo society display about One Cubic Foot at Corn Hill Arts Festival this summer was noteworthy. Both kids and adults pored over Liittschwager photos from earlier projects, and loved the idea that the Genesee was next.

“I think there’s a sense of community pride that someone who’s gone all over the world would come here to the Genesee River,” she said.

Reed Sanchez said the zoo society would use One Cubic Foot in an ongoing effort to inform and engage people about the river. A display about the project will be placed in an interpretive space at the zoo, which places a special focus on the Genesee and has been involved in helping restore river otters and river sturgeon to its ecosystem.

Next summer, the society will set up six cubes along the length of the Genesee to make more species records and will tell people how they can conduct their own biodiversity observations.

The exercise could have special value in the Genesee watershed.

Though changes in sewage-treatment practices and other improvements have led to considerable improvements in the river’s water quality, many people don’t recognize that fact. Instead, many mistake the lower Genesee’s silt-laden brown water as polluted and don’t recognize the diversity of life in and around the river.

Perhaps One Cubic Foot can help change that perception, and further the river’s rehabilitation.

“I would love for one of the things to come out of this to be more people taking ownership of the river,” Reed Sanchez said.

Liittschwager, a San Francisco resident and a contributing photographer to National Geographic, has done about 20 iterations of One Cubic Foot since the first was published in 2010. Most recently, he was in Florida and in French Polynesia in the Pacific Ocean.

The Genesee, which is by far the biggest river in which he’s worked, presented a challenge in terms of finding the right place to put his cube.

On Wednesday, he was testing a location under the branches of a bush that hung out over the water on the eastern bank of the river across from Turning Point, which is in Charlotte.

Tiny plants and animals that live in the water would float through the box. Part of the cube was above the water line, so insects would fly through. Fish might well pass through. Liittschwager mused that it was the sort of place water snakes, frogs or even a river otter might frequent.

He was thrilled to note that he’d seen a turtle nearby and that a great blue heron habitually waded near the box, looking for prey.

“We know that it’s a really rich spot,” he said.

But Liittschwager also planned to place the cube in a spot near the river’s west bank later Wednesday to assess how that might work.

Wherever the cube winds up, a GoPro camera will be mounted nearby to provide visual documentation of passing species. Liittschwager also will use a fine-mesh net to capture organisms that go through the cube.

If he collects the actual critter that passes through the cubic frame, he’ll photograph it. If he identifies a species through the GoPro, he’ll look for a representative sample in the Genesee to depict. His photographs are to be exhibited in February and March at the Rochester Contemporary Art Center.

On Wednesday, as he stood on the boardwalk that extends out over the Genesee at Turning Point, Liittschwager said he could end up setting out two frames and GoPros and choosing the one that proved most productive on Monday.

“It’s a long way to come to put all of your eggs in one basket,” he said with a laugh.

SORR@DemocratandChronicle.com