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!
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.
You can't. He has to find it himself - that's a part of the criteria. Sorry!
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was withdrawn on these grounds in 2001, but otherwise, what you see on this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 The awards closed in 2003 and are no longer updated.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.
Pages marked with this symbol are exclusively written for
Naturenet