First lady Laura Bush, whose fascination with the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands may have helped gain their protection as a national monument, will view them firsthand for the first time tomorrow morning when her Air Force jet sets down at Midway Atoll.

The jet is scheduled to leave Los Angeles this evening on a direct flight to Midway, where the passengers will spend the night before taking the day tomorrow to tour the atoll and its wildlife.

The full plane will include the first lady, Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne, Council on Environmental Quality Chairman James Connaughton, other officials, staff and media.

They are scheduled for an all-day tour of two of Midway's islands: Eastern Island, which has been cleared of nearly all man-made structures other than docks, seawalls and old runways; and Sand Island, which is the operational center for the atoll, with administrative and support buildings, an international airport, a small harbor and a significant amount of military and other historical buildings and gear from throughout the 1900s.

The most impressive feature of Midway is not its evidence of human use, but its stunning array of bird life. Hundreds of thousands of seabirds nest there at a time, ranging from fragile-looking little terns to the avian equivalent of mammoths — the Laysan and black-footed albatross.

The Bush party will view historic military sites and learn from Fish and Wildlife Service personnel on-island about wildlife conservation programs for albatross and Hawaiian monk seals.

Because flying seabirds pose a danger to jet engines around Midway in daylight, the first lady's aircraft operations are scheduled after dark, when most birds are either at their nests or out at sea. The jet will arrive at Midway late tonight, and will leave Midway's Sand Island airfield after 7 p.m. tomorrow for a direct flight to Honolulu.

On Friday, the first lady is scheduled to meet with Gov. Linda Lingle and others at Washington Place for a naming ceremony — which will provide a Hawaiian name to what is now the Northwestern Islands Marine National Monument.

"The Northwestern Hawaiian Islands are significant for natural as well as cultural history. Hawaiians have an ancestral link to the place," said Aulani Wilhem, monument superintendent for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. She welcomed the establishment of a culturally appropriate Hawaiian name for the national monument. The actual name will not be released until Friday.

Laura Bush is an outspoken advocate of conservation in the White House, and is said to have been instrumental in arranging a special viewing April 5 last year for herself, President Bush and top administration officials and others of Jean-Michel Cousteau's video, "Voyage to Kure." It so impressed the president that two months later he employed his power under the 1909 Antiquities Act and gave the region permanent protection as a national monument.

The monument is a huge piece of dry and wet real estate. It includes the 10 islands, atolls and reefs beyond Kaua'i and Ni'ihau, a region 100 miles wide and 1,200 miles long with 2.7 million acres of coral reef, more than 7,000 species of life and millions of nesting seabirds. It is managed by a unique triumvirate — the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the state of Hawai'i operate as co-trustees of the area.

Reach Jan TenBruggencate at jant@honoluluadvertiser.com.