U.S. Deputy Secretary of the Interior Lynn Scarlett will lead off a week in Hawai'i as the senior federal official at Pearl Harbor Day ceremonies on Wednesday at the Arizona Memorial, where she will lay a wreath, give a speech and assure folks that the federal government is behind improvements to the memorial.

Scarlett arrives tomorrow night from Washington with a schedule that's full — and diverse — through the night of Dec. 13.

She said the Bush administration is committed to the redevelopment of the shoreside Arizona Memorial visitor center as well as "enhancements" to the sunken battleship itself — all in partnership with other private and public groups.

The ship, sunk during the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, is a tomb for more than 1,000 sailors. Its deterioration was studied this year by archaeologist divers who concluded that its metal hull and framework are being degraded in the saltwater, but more slowly than earlier studies suggested.

The memorial is operated by the National Park Service, which falls under Scarlett's department, along with the Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Geological Survey, Bureau of Indian Affairs and others.

At the Pearl Harbor visitors center rebuilding project, as well as at programs of other Department of the Interior agencies, Scarlett is the voice of the Bush administration policy of partnering with local officials and private agencies rather than having the federal government go it alone.

Scarlett was sworn in Nov. 22. However, she joined the Bush administration in 2001, and had been serving as Interior's assistant secretary of policy, management and budget. She was a member of the president's environmental policy task force during his election campaign.

Her commitment to relying on nonfederal resources predates her service with the federal government. She is a political scientist, a former president of the Reason Foundation and a proponent of what she calls incentive-based environmental policies. She co-author ed a report, "Race to the Top: State Environmental Innovations," which looks at how state governments have used local resources and partnerships with private individuals and firms to address environmental issues.

Not surprisingly, one of her key goals in Hawai'i is to inspect projects and programs that take a partnership approach with the federal government. It follows Bush's August 2004 executive order on what he calls "cooperative conservation."

Some 80 percent of endangered species are on private land, so if the federal government wants to have an effective voice in conservation, it needs to engage the owners of those lands, Scarlett said.

"Success requires that we find ways to partner with private entities," she said.

During her Hawai'i trip, she will visit a wide range of existing partnerships "that exemplify the vision that we're trying to advance," she said. In some, the federal government is an active partner and, in others, it is providing funds to help nonfederal partners get the job done.

At Ulupalakua Ranch, landowner Sumner Erdman is getting help through a federal Private Stewardship Grant to collect seeds and sprout them and replant them in the wild to restore koa forests on the slopes of Haleakala. Nearby Haleakala National Park, which is under Scarlett's jurisdiction, is a member of watershed partnerships that join federal and state agencies, private landowners, water departments, conservation groups and others in community efforts on behalf of protecting upland environments.

Downslope, a federal program, helped fund the restoration and protection of 53 acres of dunelands at Kanaha on Maui, where native beach plants were replanted and are flourishing.

The Hanalei National Wildlife Refuge has a long-standing partnership with taro farmers, whose wetland agricultural techniques provide habitat for native Hawaiian waterbirds.

In the rugged terrain of the northern end of Kaua'i's Na Pali Coast, upper Limahuli Valley is home to at least 13 endangered and threatened species, but they also are being threatened by invasion of feral pigs and goats. A Private Stewardship Grant of $336,000 to landowner National Tropical Botanical Garden will help fence 400 acres to keep the invaders out.

On the Big Island, the Fish and Wildlife Service is among the partners in the Keauhou Bird Conservation Center that raises in captivity some of Hawai'i's rarest birds, in hopes of having a stock that can be released back into the wild.

Scarlett said she is pleased with the progress of cooperative conservation.

"This 21st century does look different from the 20th century," she said. "We have engaged a nation of citizen stewards."

Reach Jan TenBruggencate at jant@honoluluadvertiser.com.