Lanphere Dunes. | Photo courtesy the Humboldt County Visitors Bureau. ### 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, to name just a few species.