Writings — John N. Maclean

Opinion: This Montana river is threatened by one senator and a bitter clash over use of public lands

By John N. Maclean
The Washington Post, November 16, 2021

When after many years I finally found a way back to the Blackfoot River in western Montana, it was a dream come true. I returned at a lucky time, after an extraordinary restoration effort had brought the river back to health from a sorry state, caused by pollution and overfishing.

But today, thanks to one U.S. senator and the increasingly bitter clash over use of public lands in the West, the cold, clear waters of the Blackfoot are endangered once again.

Article, OpinionGuest UserNovember 22, 2021Montana

20 Years Later, Legacy of a Deadly Colorado Wildfire Endures

By John N. Maclean
National Geographic, July 3, 2014

The South Canyon Fire killed 14 firefighters and changed how wildfires are fought. Then last year in Arizona, tragedy struck again.

ArticleGuest UserMarch 25, 2021wildfires

New Asian Writing Interview with John Maclean

Interview with John N. Maclean
New Asian Writing, January 1, 2014

John Maclean was a writer, editor, and reporter for the Chicago Tribune for 30 years before he resigned his job there in 1995 to write Fire on the Mountain. Maclean was born in Chicago, Illinois, in 1943, the second of two children. An avid fly-fisherman, Maclean divides his time between his residence in Washington, D.C. and the Maclean family cabin in Montana. He is the award-winning author of three previous books on wildfire disasters and his latest, The Esperanza Fire, is available now.

InterviewGuest UserMarch 24, 2021wildfires

Stand down from Western wildfires

By John Maclean
Originally published by High Country News in July 2013

Tough questions are being raised about the deaths of 19 Granite Mountain Hotshots in Arizona's Yarnell Hill Fire on June 30. They were physically fit, highly trained young men, and they deployed emergency shelters in hellish temperatures that likely topped 1,200 degrees Farenheit. The burns and suffocation killed them, but were mistakes and bad policy also at fault?

Article, EssayGuest UserMarch 4, 2021wildfires

A Corner of Montana

By John Maclean
Commencement Address, University of Montanam Western Dillon, Montana: May 9, 2009

Good afternoon and welcome to the sunny world of adult responsibility. The economy you're about to join is the most prosperous in human history and America is its epicenter. With your new degree as an entrance pass, you will find ready employment at a job you can love in a location of your choice. Soon you will buy a three-bedroom home on a quiet street and start making contributions to a 401K, which will grow at a reliable 11 percent a year. Eventually, you will have a safe and secure retirement. And you know that most of what I've just said is a big fat lie.

Commencement, SpeakingGuest UserMarch 2, 2021Montana

Down to the Last Ember: The Thirtymile Fire

By John N. Maclean
Essay originally published in High Country News, September 9, 2008 in their “Writers on the Rage” series

Behind daily headlines about bigger and more costly wildland fires, the firefighting community has been sweating out the issue of criminal liability for serious mistakes made on the fireline.

EssayGuest UserMarch 1, 2021wildfires

Jocko Lakes Fire

Foreword by John N. Maclean, for Stephen J Pine’s Year of the Fires: The Story of the Great Fires of 1910

Stephen J. Pyne's Year of the Fires: The Story of the Great Fires of 1910, first published in 2001, was reissued in 2008 by Mountain Press in Missoula. The book contains a new foreword by Maclean in which he recounts the story of the 2007 Jocko Lakes Fire, which nearly took his cabin and the town of Seeley Lake, and analyzes the role the 1910 fires continue to play today.

ForewordGuest UserFebruary 28, 2021wildfires

America Under Attack

Book Review by John N. Maclean
Washington Post, June 1, 2008

FIREFIGHT: Inside the Battle to Save the Pentagon on 9/11
By Patrick Creed and Rick Newman (Ballantine. 486 pp. $27)

It took only eight-tenths of a second for American Airlines Flight 77 to strike the outer wall of the Pentagon, penetrate the concentric E, D and C Rings, collapse upon itself like an accordion and ignite chaos. The jet spewed thousands of gallons of fuel through hallways, offices and meeting rooms inside the nation's premier defense installation -- into every place that airborne mist could go on the wings of an enormous shock wave. A series of explosions sent an ominous mushroom-shaped cloud into the air.

Book ReviewGuest UserFebruary 27, 2021firefighting, 9/11