position it fell to him to protect these forests, having 

 a total area of over 29.000,000 acres, at the time of 

 the great fires in 1910. 



The following year he was appointed Assistant For- 

 ester and placed in charge of the Branch of Silvicul- 

 ture, now the Branch of Forest Management, in the 

 AYashingtoii office. This branch has supervision of all 

 national forest timber sales and timber cutting, to- 

 gether with other important lines of work. 



"With the opening of the war it was decided to 

 raise and send to France forestry troops, and their 

 recruiting was assigned to Colonel Greeley. To pre- 

 pare the way for their operations in the French for- 

 ests, the chief forester. Colonel Graves, was sent to 

 France and attached to the Central Staff. One of his 

 first steps was to send for Colonel Greeley to aid in 

 the work. After Colonel Graves returned to the 

 United States. Colonel Greeley took his place and 

 finally became chief of the Forestry section in the 

 American Expeditionary Forces, in charge of 21,000 

 forestry troops and 95 sawmills, with lumbering op- 

 erations scattered from the zone of military operations 

 to the Pyrenees and from the Swiss border to the 

 Atlantic. 



He was awarded a decoration by the French, in 

 recognition of his war service, as a Chevalier of the 

 Legion of Honor, and by the English as member of 

 the Distinguished Order of Great Britain. Last July, 

 after nearly two years of foreign service, he was 

 brought back to the United States, and in October 

 resumed his old position in the Forest Service, but 

 retaining a commission as Lieutenant-Colonel in the 



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