The rainy season begins in late May or early June. Eighty percent of the yearly precipitation may fall during this period. The average yearly rainfall in the Everglades is sixty inches, but it is never really normal. One year, the glades may only get thirty inches of rain, and the next year get 100 inches of rain. During the wet season, the whole southern tip of Florida is wet and covered with water. During this wet time is when all the plants and animals thrive for survival. For example, during the wet season the river is full of microscopic life and insect life that feeds the fish and son on up the food chain (Golia 8-18).
The dry season is wintertime for the rest of the United States. In the Everglades, the dry season begins in late November to early December and ends with the start of the new summer. The dry season can be extreme drought or mild drought, depending on the rainfall from the previous wet season. No matter what kind of drought it is, it is always a fight for survival. After the water dries up and the land cracks, fish and other aquatic life gather in gator holes. From gator holes, deer drink, river otters search for fish, and herons look for fish. These gator holes are the animals" only chance for survival (Golia 10).
The Everglades is made up of several different types of terrain, each with its own diversity. There are the Mangrove Forests, the Pinelands, Big Cypress Natural Preserve, and the rivers of sawgrass. All four terrains are vital to the Everglades, and they all work together. Each one plays a certain role in the survival of the Everglades and the survival of many native species. .
A majority of the Everglades is "a river of grass". This "river of grass" is made of sawgrass, which is what named the Everglades. Sawgrass is not really a grass but a tall plant that has sawed edges, sharp enough to tear human flesh. The sawgrass region begins about midway up and covers the bottom and eastern shores of Lake Okeechobee and stretches down for about seventy-five miles.