LOS ANGELES IS NOT A DESERT
DRY AND EMPTY PLACES
Deserts are commonly thought of as dry, empty places. However, the Los Angeles Basin has always been far from an empty landscape as it was home to many thousands of indigenous people who cultivated this land for tens of thousands of years. Tribes like the Gabrielino-Tongva continue to take care of and work with the land through reciprocity and were thriving before Spanish arrival, living comfortably throughout the LA Basin in hundreds of villages.
Craig Torres, a Tongva educator says reciprocity is, "how my ancestors were able to survive on this land for not a few hundred years, but for thousands of generations,” and, "that’s why it looked the way it did when the Spanish first came up here and they noted it in their diaries it was like a paradise.'" And indeed there are early Spanish expedition letters that described downtown LA as a “very green, lush and wide reaching valley of level soil” with a river that “runs continually onward with a great amount of trees.”
So why do people call LA a desert? By most scientific understandings, LA is not considered a desert–and has never been the “dry empty” place so many people imagine. So where did this idea come from? And what are the implications of thinking of it this way?
What many mean by using desert is, on the one hand that it "has no worthwhile nature," (for leisure activities) and on the other, calling it a desert implies that it is "a place that needs westernized development…to make it profitable ", a remark that also clearly erases indigenous cultivation of the land. Thus, whether it was to make the land sound unusable in order to be claimed by the The 1877 “Desert Lands Act” or tied to the need for the aqueduct to support population growth, the idea of the desert has often been tied to private gain and LA's markets of population growth.
In the following sections I'll go through both the scientific understandings of LA’s varied ecosystems as well as the historical explanation of how and why the idea of Los Angeles as a desert took hold. I am making this website to think about why the idea of LA as desert continues to persist and talk to and learn from those who are working to change this idea and educate others in order to remember what was and to restore and preserve what we can for the benefit of animals, plants, and the humans who live here.
WHAT IS A DESERT?
The phrase "LA is a desert" is often meant as an easy way to express that LA's ecosystems can't be life sustaining or that it's nature is "bad". Just like these opinions can use some reevaluation, so can the stereotypical idea of deserts as bad places be challenged. National Geographic says, "People often use the adjectives “hot,” “dry,” and “empty” to describe deserts, but these words do not tell the whole story. Although some deserts are very hot, with daytime temperatures as high as 54°C (130°F), other deserts have cold winters or are cold year-round. And most deserts, far from being empty and lifeless, are home to a variety of plants, animals, and other organisms. People have adapted to life in the desert for thousands of years."
Environmental classifications of desert ecosystems have many factors and even the word desert is not a monolith as there are many types of desert; polar, rain shadow, subtropical, coastal, and interior are several common classifications. “A desert then is not so simply defined. Several characteristics: seasonal, high temperatures; low, sporadic rainfall; a high rate of evaporation; wide temperature ranges; and strong winds are part of the definition.”
The clearest example used often for quick reference has to do with yearly rainfall and evaporation rates. Most experts agree that a desert climate is one that receives 10 or fewer inches of rain per year and has 70 to 160 inches of water evaporate per year. Death Valley, for instance, gets only 2.2 inches of rain per year and its evaporation rate is 128 inches per year. The famous Joshua Tree National Park, gets 8 inches of rain per year and 96 inches of evaporation per year. These two national parks within the Mojave Desert and Colorado Desert are clear examples of extreme low rainfall to high evaporation rates. Compare this to LA's average of 14" of rain per year and evapotranspiration rates varying from 30" to 60" (evapotranspiration includes free surface evaporation and that from plants) and we see that although very arid, we do not live in the extremes of our neighboring Mojave and Colorado deserts.
WHAT IS LOS ANGELES?
The experience of climate for someone living in Santa Monica is very different than someone living in Lancaster and what people mean when they say "LA is a desert" can be as varied as the ecosystems that exist within this diverse county.
Its so dry in Los Angeles, isn't that like a desert?
As mentioned above, many characteristics define deserts and aridity, comparing rainfall of 10" or less to evaporation rates of 70"-160" per year, is only one of them. So how does LA compare? The easy measurement is Los Angeles gets an average of 14"-16” of rain per year. Measuring the evaporation rate for urban environments becomes much more complex due to the varying amounts of concrete and tree cover, irrigated land vs. non irrigated land, and many other factors. In one study an evaporation pan at the Los Angeles Airport showed an average evaporation rate of 65 inches of water per year. Even in an extreme example of a concrete expanse like the airport the evaporation rate is below the given example of evaporation rates from deserts. This map shows the evapotranspiration rate (the loss of water from free surfaces and plant cells) for Los Angeles county ranging from 30"-60" of water per year going from the wetter coastal regions to the more arid regions in the east. These differences are due to microclimates are one of the defining characteristics of the LA Basin.
So if not a desert then what is it?
While some characteristics of Los Angeles microclimates and ecosystems have traits similar to deserts at different times of the year, by the Koppen-Geiger Climate Classification System, LA is a mix of the following: CSB-warm temperate (summer dry, warm summer) and CSA- warm temperate (summer dry, hot summer) or it is BSK- arid, steppe, cold arid. Despite some similarities with commonly thought of desert traits, most experts agree that the majority of Los Angeles is a Mediterranean Climate Zone characterized by warm dry summers and temperate wet winters.
But it never rains in LA?
Every holiday season, winter decorations are followed by another seasonal tradition, rain. Weather-reporters repeat the refrain, "much needed rain" so much that late night TV hosts make it a joke and locals make compilations celebrating the return of rainfall to their watersheds. The return of rainfall every year does seem sensational due to our very long dry season but despite the astonishment in weather reporters voices, these patterns are not a surprise, they are more akin the sensational "changing of colors" experienced in the Fall of Northeast states.
But LA doesn't have seasons.
With a population growth of about 2 percent over ten years and tens of millions of visitors a year, it is easy to see how the nuances of Southern California seasons might go unnoticed by those unfamiliar with them. They certainly aren't the four seasons we were taught in school. Our mediterranean climate is unique and so it is natural that it takes time to notice what a seasons mean here. I've already mentioned "much needed rain" season and "when is it going to rain" season, which are the more scientific seasons of this region. But stay here awhile and you start to notice other yearly occurrences. Poppy and wildflower season in early spring after the much needed rain, followed by Jacarandas blooming, then June Gloom which holds off intense heat until late summer, then Santa Anas winds and wildfire season begin and continue into Fall, then uneasy relief during that first week in late October when the temperatures finally don't go over 98 degrees, then much needed rain.How exciting to start seeing our environment for what it is and what it offers us as markers of time!
But... if you must have the more common leaves changing colors in the Fall and snow in the winter... then good news cause there are ways to enjoy those as well! "California sycamores, ginkgos, and sweet gum trees, among a few others, turn yellow, orange, and red" and can be viewed many places around LA county. If it is the white stuff you are after then check out this guide to snow in the Los Angeles National Forest. Although only accessible by car many Angelinos enjoy a few snow days in the neighboring mountains each year and even ski at larger resorts such as Big Bear.
But there aren't trees here?
A lot of LA county is covered in the chaparral ecosystem, "a unique shrubland plant community that thrives in our hot, dry summers and mild, wet winters," although so common here, "it only occurs...a few other places in the world." Throughout the world, "the Mediterranean ecosystem is characterized by evergreen or drought deciduous shrublands," and Los Angeles has more in common with, "old world Mediterranean maquis, the Chilean matorral, South African fynbos and the Australian mallee scrub communities." than our neighboring deserts.
Additionaly, "Due to the limited extent and isolation (almost island-like) of each area of the Mediterranean ecosystem, there is frequently a high degree of endemism in the flora and fauna." It turns out that LA's ecosystems are extremely unique and bursting with biodiveristy! Instead of "no trees" chapparral, oak woodlands, pine forests, sage scrub, and riparian woodlands persist despite the ten million people living alongside them.
Ok but seriously there is no water here... it must be a desert!
Beyond chapparral ecosystems the land currently known as Los Angeles county was home to many creeks, rivers and wetlands. In one example a report was released, "that reconstructs the historical landscape of the Ballona Creek watershed – a 130-square-mile swath of land home to more than 1.2 million people..." the results were surprising, "the watershed was home to more than 14,000 acres of wetlands, ranging from freshwater ponds to alkali flats, from willow thickets to meadows, and home to a diversity of migratory and resident birds." This is just one watershed that was greatly disturbed by the urban development of Los Angeles after European arrival. There are many more watersheds like the Arroyo Seco, Rio Hondo River, San Gabriel River, and the LA River. Although European and American development led to these life bringing watersheds being drained and bound up in concrete channels there are still many ways to visit them and ponder what could have been and what we might be able to restore.
So why do so many people think LA is a desert?
The more we unpack the phrase "LA is a desert" the more it becomes less about specific scientific definitions and more about what it means to misinform, misrepresent, and misremember what our ecosystem was and is. At worst the phrase "LA is a desert" means "a place that is no good or isn't worth thinking about" but another interpretation might mean to say, "LA is very different and not always as easy to understand". Whatever the meaning, the idea that there is nothing worth conserving here in Los Angeles County will only add to habitat loss for plants and animals, more heat, and pollution for its residents. In the reverse, if we show that ecological improvements can happen here in LA, the second largest city in the USA, then they can happen anywhere.
WHAT DOES IT MATTER?
When transplants and residents alike dismiss LA as "just a desert" it adds to the idea that there is nothing worth conserving here. Although much natural habitat has been lost, thinking that the LA basin is simply a “wasteland” where there is nothing left couldn't be farther from the truth. In fact, California ranks exceptionally high in biodiversity, and the Medeterrainian climate of Los Angeles in particular covers only 2% of the earth. LA has several impressive open spaces like Griffith Park in Los Feliz and the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area (which comprises 153,075 acres and considered "is the world's largest urban national park"). Around LA County you can find over 4,000 distinct plants and animals, including “megafauna” like whales, dolphins, big horn sheep, bears, and mountain lions. Not to mention the crows, butterflies, and other creatures that roam around countless neighborhoods.
However, there is also a dark truth to the idea that Los Angeles has “nothing natural” in it. Decades of real-estate and automobile-centered city planning means that there are many parts of Los Angeles where it is hard to imagine its meandering creeks, oak groves, wetlands, and idyllic valleys. LA is one of the most park poor cities in the the USA, meaning that almost half of all residents live more than a ten minute walk to a local park. This is especially true in working-class neighborhoods and the largely African-American and Latinx neighborhoods in South and East LA. It is easy to see why there is a disconnect between the natural areas LA has to offer and the day to day reality of many Angelinos. The environmental impact of rapid development, poor city planning, and racist policies is huge and affects the most vulnerable residents of this county.
Although the LA basin of the Tongva, and that under Spanish, Mexican, and American rule–at least into part of the twentieth century–never was a desert, current development trends might be turning it into one, with more and more concrete and less and less wild land. Climate change may bring increasing aridity into the region and push us towards a true desert classification.
So what can be done?
The first, small scale thing is to recognize and cultivate the natural spaces all around us. Just like a healthy curiosity about our surroundings helps us understand the larger ecosystems we live in, we can also be curious about the plants and wildlife that grow right in our yards. We can learn about and grow native plants like California buckwheats, sages, penstamons, and monkeyflowers. We can also appreciate everyday nature–from the dandelions that grow in Walmart parking lots to the crows that hop along our rooftops, to the possums, racoons, and coyotes that thrive in freeway underpasses and suburban backyards. Planting trees, community gardens, micro parks, and increasing access to tools and education are already helping to create a more natural future.
At the larger scale, we should work towards public land equity and increase green spaces in low-income areas of LA. This is not just good for “nature,” but helps promote the happiness and health of residents in industrial or park-poor areas. Groups like LA Nature for All, Tree People, and East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice (EYCEJ) and many more are working for precisely this kind of ecological justice at the city level. Due to these efforts; Tree People has planted three million trees in Los Angeles, LA Nature for All's Leadership Academy graduates have completed over 100 community projects, many advocating and improving park poor communities, and EYCEJ have succeeded and continue to fight for remedation of polluted factory sites that follow the industrial corridor along the LA River and create pollution for millions of residents.
There is so much to get excited about nature in LA, so much to learn about what our environment is and isn't and the threats over development poses to our ecosystems, and so many groups to get involved with who are making an impact for conservation and environmental justice. Without this focus on changing how our city develops and protects its natural spaces–including for the most vulnerable–LA’s “nature” threatens to become a privilege of some while becoming a desert for others.
