Map of the Sturgill fire closure area.

BAKER CITY — The Wallowa-Whitman National Forest has temporarily closed two swathes of the Eagle Cap Wilderness, including sections of several trails, as two lightning fires continue to burn.

The larger of the blazes, Sturgill, is burning on the east side of the Minam River in the northwest part of the Eagle Cap.

The Nebo fire, meanwhile, is about 20 miles away, at the east end of the wilderness in the Lick Creek and Big Sheep Creek areas, north of the Imnaha River. The Nebo fire has burned outside the wilderness near the Tenderfoot trailhead along Road 100, west of the Wallowa Mountain Loop Road, No. 39.

The Sturgill fire, which is inside the wilderness, was estimated at 14,262 acres on Tuesday morning, Sept. 6.

There was “low to moderate fire activity” on the Sturgill fire on Monday, Sept. 5, according to an update from the overhead team managing both the wilderness fires and the larger Double Creek fire, which is outside the wilderness in the Lower Imnaha River area.

The Nebo fire is estimated at 7,832 acres, and the fire behavior on Monday was also low to moderate.

Under a policy in place on the Wallowa-Whitman for about 30 years, firefighters are not employing a “full suppression” strategy for the Sturgill and Nebo fires, as well as the much smaller Goat Mountain fire, estimated at 153 acres, which is northwest of the Sturgill fire. There was minimal activity on the Goat Mountain fire Monday.

On all wilderness fires, crews are monitoring the blazes and taking steps, such as calling in helicopters to drop water, to confine the flames to certain areas.

Firefighters on the ground are working to protect private property, including Red’s Horse Ranch and the Minam Lodge west of the Sturgill fire, and the Lick Creek Campground near the Nebo fire.

Closure areas

The Sturgill fire closure includes much of the northwest part of the wilderness, from the Mount Moriah area south to beyond Mule Peak Lookout, and extending east across the Minam River Canyon to the Lostine River. The closure doesn’t include the Lake Basin.

The Nebo fire closure covers the area southeast of Wallowa Lake, including Aneroid Mountain.

Fire official generally pleased with effects

Todd Pederson, an assistant fire management officer with the Wallowa-Whitman, which manages the Eagle Cap Wilderness, said he watched with trepidation on Saturday, Sept. 3 as the Sturgill fire, propelled by gusty winds in the wake of a cold front, produced a towering smoke plume.

But Pederson said that when he flew over the fire later, he was “pleasantly surprised” at the aftermath.

Although the fire burned intensely in areas dominated by subalpine firs, running through the trees’ crowns, on lower slopes, dominated by ponderosa pines and Douglas-firs, the fire mainly stayed on the ground, reducing the fuel loading but killing relatively few of the trees.

“Tree mortality was surprisingly low,” Pederson said.

Both fires have the potential to grow significantly on Tuesday, Sept. 6 and Wednesday, Sept. 7, as another heat wave is forecast to bring record-breaking temperatures and extremely low humidities, as well as strong winds on Wednesday as a cold front moves through.

The goal is to prevent the Nebo fire from spreading farther outside the wilderness, and to keep it west of the 39 Road, Pederson said.

Firefighters worked Tuesday to reduce fuels along that road and the 200 Road, using a machine called a masticator that chops up roadside trees and brush.

On the Sturgill fire, Pederson said the objective is to keep the fire from spreading into the Lostine River corridor and moving north outside the wilderness. He said the fire is about a mile and a half from the wilderness boundary, in the Goat Mountain area.

On Tuesday firefighters worked to build a shaded fuelbreak — an area where trees and other fuels are removed — along the Lostine River corridor.