Just look at pictures of the area before 1945, but you do have to open your eyes and MIND to see it.
I grew up in the Montebello area in the late 40’s up to the early 60’s.
Everything that wasn’t citrus, was vegetable fields, Avocados, or dairy farms.
Firestone Blvd. was a two lane semi-country road where Cal Worthington used to hawk, bait, and switch his used cars.
We used to catch trout in the San Gabriel and Rio Hondo rivers and hunt pheasant and quail in the cut over fields.
The entire region was nothing but that. People came and grew all that and everything else. And they started importing water. I’m talking about before the 40s. Way before.
Look at the earliest images of of S. CA. Tell me what you see. I can assure you it looked pretty much like a desert landscape. No orchards, no citrus, no vegetable fields.
Here is what I'm talking about. Burbank 1889. Look at the ground. Look at those hills. Looks pretty much like barren desert, right?
My point way back on this thread was, if you shut off the water, in 12 months S. CA starts to resemble a desert. 18 months no water, most everything is dead or dying.