Land board would amplify local voices But a committee proposed by Shasta County Supervisor David Kehoe is no joke. Prompted in part by this summer’s explosive wave of wildfires and the resulting debate about fuel management on public lands, Kehoe wants to create a committee to birddog the management of federal lands on behalf of county residents. 0This is such a plainly fine idea that you wonder why the county didn’t do it years ago. About 40 percent of the land in Shasta County is under the stewardship of the Forest Service, the Bureau of Land Management and the National Park Service. Those lands include our top tourist destinations, locals’ favorite playgrounds, rangelands and a much-diminished but still substantial amount of working timber. They also supply the fuel for our annual summertime plague of wildfires, offer hideouts for increasingly ambitious marijuana growers, and cause an unfortunate dependence on decisions made by bureaucrats and politicians three time zones away. Kehoe said he’d like to see a committee focus on forests and fuel management on the public land surrounding our rural communities, but also recreation, roads and trails, and other uses. It would create a forum for discussion of public lands management and give greater voice to local residents. And Kehoe stressed that the county should include diverse representatives, not just create “a lobby group for increased timber harvesting” — though he’d favor more logging....