Lanphere Dunes. | Photo courtesy the Humboldt County Visitors Bureau.
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On Tuesday, the final day of the Trump administration, Secretary of the Interior David L. Bernhardt honored the natural beauty and ecological value of Lanphere and Ma-le’l Dunes by designating them national natural landmarks.
The National Natural Landmarks Program, managed by the National Park Service, recognizes sites that have “outstanding biological and geological resources” while encouraging their conservation.
“It’s a way of recognizing truly special places that are of national significance,” said Mike Cipra, executive director of the nonprofit Friends of the Dunes.
The undulating sand mounds, woody swales and verdant wetlands of Lanphere and Ma-le’l Dunes, located on the Samoa Peninsula west of Arcata, are home to a remarkably diverse array of native flora. Coniferous and riparian forests rise above patches of pale green reindeer lichen, blooming sand verbena and Menzies wallflower,
You may know it as Dog Ranch or perhaps Dead Man s Drop Forest, but forget that. The parcels immediately to the west of Samoa Bridge are now officially the Samoa Dunes and Wetlands Conservation Area. We re looking to re-introduce this place to our community, says Mike Cipra, who heads up Friends of the Dunes, the new titleholder of the 357 acres. This property is a fantastic jewel for our local community and we want to emphasize just how special it is with the name. The recently concluded sale saw three agencies the California Coastal Conservancy, the California Natural Resources Agency and the California Wildlife Conservation Board joining forces to fund the purchase of 12 coastal dune and waterfront parcels from Security National for approximately $2 million. One condition of the sale was that Security National would clean up the property following years of dumping and squatting, and they ve done a great job. We now have a virtually pristine piece of public land for t