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The Ranger's Awards archive
a select few of the ranger's very best websites

The Virtual Ranger is always surfing around to see what's about. Between 1998 and 2003 he selected a range of his favourite websites and awarded the Rangers Award. This award is now closed, but here is the archive of the last winners. Not all of these sites are still active.

Here are just a select few of the very best websites he has found - in no particular order. These sites have all won the Ranger's Award. I hope you enjoy them and find them useful. If your site has won the Ranger's Award, please feel free to refer to it on your site and link back to this page. Use the Ranger's Award image on your page too!

Naturenet: The  Ranger's AwardHow The Ranger selects award winners
All the sites on this page are UK oriented websites which take the Ranger's fancy. This usually means that they are excellent examples of good web design and promotion used as a tool for countryside management or wildlife conservation. Just like Naturenet. Apparently, the Ranger also has a preference for websites which are something more than a platform for a particular organisation or message.

How to nominate your site for the Ranger's Award
You can't. He has to find it himself - that's a part of the criteria. Sorry!

How many Ranger's Awards have been awarded?
We started these awards in 1998. We don't give out many and we probably never will. This is the first and only Ranger's Award page, and the sites below are the winners. New awards are made when, and if, the Virtual Ranger finds a suitable website. Winners keep their awards as long as their sites are still online, up-to-date, and of at least the same quality they displayed when the award was made. It's probably fair to say that since 1998, the general standard of websites has risen considerably and our criteria have risen similarly, but sites which are not regularly updated and improved don't please us much anyway. One award was withdrawn on these grounds in 2001, but otherwise, what you see on this page is the lot. The awards closed in 2003 and are no longer updated.

Wicken Fen NNR, Cambridgeshire: there's so much in this website, and room for much more. It has a very wide range of information, and much of it is regualarly updated.
Postcode Plants Database: what a superb idea. What's more, it works! This is web technology applied with a real purpose. Here, try it!

BTCV Handbooks Online: this is the gospel of practical conservation in the UK. Whilst it has easily been worth buying the paper copies for years, incredibly, they are now available online, and not just mouldy old scanned photocopies but a full working online version. Truly great use of the web, and the source material is second to none. There's loads of superb stuff here, and a promise of more.
Rye Harbour Nature Reserve: well-designed pages with lots of info, up to date, no end of useful links and even souvenirs to buy!
Hartslock SSSI: a magnificent collection of information, very well explained, well presented and right up to date. Dare you download the 65Kb species list? You know you can't resist it.
Habitat: a daily UK conservation newsletter from the ever-reliable Wharfe. Good, up to date news, nice pictures and a very wide range of sources. Lovely.
Offwell Woodland and Wildlife Trust: a great website with lots of good species information, webcams, habitat management reports, education resources... everything is here. Even some fun interactive wildlife puzzles! We havn't looked at a fraction of this site yet, and we've found loads of corking pages. Now you try.
The Amateur Entomological Society: a great website, but the Bug Key gives it the edge. Try it.
Canterbury Environmental Education Centre: check out the virtual pond dip. There's plenty more in the rest of this comprehensive site too. Now, it's even available in German and Spanish. Wow.
National Trails: superb representations of real trail leaflets but with all the advantages of a web page. Not sure you would want to take a PC with you, though.

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