GREEN BAY – On Tuesday, Vice President Al Gore swung through Milwaukee on a campaign stop, making big news with his promise to ban not only road building but also logging in about a quarter of the nation’s National Forest lands – including nearly 70,000 acres of Wisconsin forests.

Gore’s remarks were still generating heavy fallout Wednesday morning, as U.S. Rep. Mark Green (R-Green Bay) blasted Gore, contending that the vice president’s newly-suggested policy could "threaten our way of life" in northeastern Wisconsin.

"We’re talking about jobs," Green said. "We’re talking about our way of life. Suggesting this kind of policy just shows how out of touch with working folks Al Gore really is. Our communities in northeastern Wisconsin depend on these forests for their livelihoods, and the policy the vice president put forward yesterday puts those livelihoods in jeopardy."

Green said the tone of Gore’s remarks also worried him, citing quotes from Tuesday’s event.

"If I am entrusted with the presidency, it will be a national priority to preserve these roadless areas as they are, no ifs, ands or buts about it," Gore said. "No more destructive development and exploitation. And just so I'm crystal clear about it, no new road building and no timber sales in the roadless areas of our national forests. Period."

The Gore policy would go beyond recently-proposed Clinton administration plans to ban construction of new roads in 43 million acres of National Forest land across America. Green has already criticized this "Roadless Initiative," and said Gore’s new plan is another incremental step away from continued forest access.

"First, the administration proposed a ban on road building in our area’s National Forests," Green said. "Now Al Gore is promising to ban logging too. It makes you wonder what’s going to be next. These are our forests, they belong to the people, and at every turn these guys in Washington are working to cut off our access to them."

Green concluded by pointing out that logging not only benefits area workers and communities, but the forests themselves.

"As trees naturally die and fall in untouched forests, they begin to accumulate," Green said. "Consequently, many forest floors are covered with dry, decomposing wood that too often serves as kindling for massive forest fires, in some cases similar to the recent fires we’ve seen near Los Alamos. By clearing out this dead wood, humans serve a critical function that contributes significantly to the protection of the forest."