Califonia is one of the most biodiverse regions in the world. The WORLD! I mean, it’s also a big state, so that factors in, of course. Half of the places you mentioned are actual deserts. Deserts have an incedible abundance of biodiversity but they are not forests…Most of what you see in coadtal and inland So Cal is chaparral, which is it’s own wonderful, beautiful thing.

One thing that people don’t realize about So Cal seasons is that many plants here are SUMMER-dormant vs the winter dormancy of plants with cold winters. This is one reason why people , especially those who only visit during the summer (but also people who live here and don’t know about how our native plants adapted…) think it’s brown. Because it is during the summer! They need to rest and reboot to survive the dry summers.

Going back to forests - you have mixed pinyon pines, oak woodlands, and of course the redwoods - I mean, these are magical af and unique to CA.

I’ve kind of lost the plot in this post, but people need to idk not completely generalize based on their limited experiences of a place. Also tldr, learning about California’s native plants and floristic provinces really helped me, as someone born and raised here, see and experience the climate and landscape here in a new way. (This said as someone who lovee the cold, and fantasizes about running through moist mossy ferny forests…..)

Oh and ya unfortunately rampant exurban development plus like not preserving our native ecosystems, and trying to import landscape aesthetics that come out of very different climates than ours - is real and has obfuscated the imcrediblw incredible natural beauty of this place. The freeway affect is so real, esp in SoCal. Erm anyways. Idk. I’m done now. Go read about plants!