Ranger Rick, originally Ranger Rick's Nature Magazine, is a children's nature magazine that is published by the United States National Wildlife Federation (NWF). The magazine offers feature articles and activities for children ages eight and up to spark their interest in the outdoors and encourage them to become more actively involved in protecting the environment. The magazine's primary intention is to instill a passion for nature and promote activity outdoors. NWF also publishes two companion magazines, Ranger Rick Jr., which is aimed at ages four to eight, and Ranger Rick Cub, which is aimed at kids zero to four years old.

In 1959, John Ashley "Ash" Brownridge (1917–2015), under the pseudonym John A. Morris, wrote the book The Adventures of Rick Raccoon, starring an anthropomorphic raccoon named Rick and his friends in the Deep Green Wood. After seeing a book a colleague sent from Japan that featured a tanuki, he was inspired to create a book to teach children the value of conservation. Two years later, in 1960, he wrote another book entitled Ranger Rick and the Great Forest Fire. Then, in January 1967, the first issue of Ranger Rick's Nature Magazine was published. The magazine was so popular that by 1972, NWF's membership had tripled.

The first illustrator of the magazine was painter Lorin Thompson, who drew the characters in a realistic yet expressive manner. In 1982, he was replaced by Alton Langford, who redesigned the existing characters and introduced new characters Scarlett Fox and Boomer Badger. In 1999, Robby Gilbert took over as the new illustrator, coinciding with the magazine's shift from short stories to comic strips. In 2009, British company TheCharacterShop became the new illustrators, rendering the comics as three-dimensional images. In 2016, TheCharacterShop, under the direction of Parker Jacobs, gave the comics a new two-dimensional cartoony style.

Numerous characters have appeared in the magazine series. The current main three characters from the magazine's monthly comics are as follows:

Ranger Rick has a circulation of 525,000, and an estimated 200,000 more children are exposed to the magazine via passed along copies. The magazine is published ten times a year by the National Wildlife Federation. The headquarters is in Reston, Virginia.

The magazine uses an environmentally friendly processed paper, which is composed of consumer waste (about 30%) and is absent of chlorine. Vegetable oils largely make up the magazine's actual ink.

Each issue includes nonfiction articles about various environmental and animal topics, fictional story-like articles, and color photography throughout. Also included in the magazine are activities such as nature-themed games, activities that get children to actively learn more about their environment, riddles, and jokes. Most of the pages of the magazine feature multi-page photo stories of animals in their natural habitats. There are also illustrated stories, games, riddles, nature news, poetry, contests, and other features and columns. Ranger Rick, a raccoon park ranger, is the title character in the longstanding magazine feature Ranger Rick Adventures (originally Ranger Rick and his Friends, then Adventures of Ranger Rick): an illustrated short story depicting Ranger Rick and his compatriots from Deep Green Wood exploring the world, often encountering threats to wildlife and environmental problems. Rick or any one of his friends, including Scarlett Fox, his deputy, and Boomer Badger always finds a solution to whatever problem they encounter, thus encouraging children to do their part to protect the natural environment.

Ranger Rick magazines have featured a variety of adventure stories tackling various subjects, such as the hazards of fishing lines at sea or invasive species in the Everglades. Ranger Rick is sometimes incorporated in elementary science classrooms to enhance the interest of environmental conservation in young children.