What was LA like long before people inhabited the area?
The Los Angeles River still provides a key habitat for small birds such as the American wigeon.
The Los Angeles river deposited rich, fertile soil, which allowed plants to grow there.
Long ago, the Los Angeles River looked very different from how it is today. The River has flooded many times due to the unusual mediterranean climate in LA. These floods completely changed the course of the Los Angeles River, as well as creating small marshes and wetlands throughout the Los Angeles Basin. The floods also caused erosion and widespread deposits of sediments that formed long strips of fertile land called floodplains. These unique environments, paired with L.A.’s rare climate made an ecologically diverse habitat for different plants and animals, allowing multiple rare species to thrive. However, the channelization of the Los Angeles River has destroyed the majority of these habitats and has caused the extinction of many animals. Some of these animals that have been displaced are the Steelhead Trout and the California Grizzly. Overall, humans have drastically changed how the Los Angeles River looks today.
A view of the L.A. river from the Glendale/Hyperion Bridge, from 1937, before the river was paved with concrete.