Butternut, WI
How exposed is Butternut to wildfire?
USFS scores Butternut at the 18th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally), a figure built from 318 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Butternut at the 18th percentile, close to its 18th-percentile risk score.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
63.8% of Butternut's 318 buildings fall in USFS's Indirect exposure zone — ember cast rather than direct flame — against 36.2% Direct and 0% Minimal. Vent screens and roofing material matter more here than lot clearing alone.
Butternut against the rest of the country
Butternut's risk sits at a similar level relative to Wisconsin (24th percentile statewide) as it does nationally (18th) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Butternut ranks 25,956 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 21,168 by building count (1 is largest). Within Wisconsin alone, it ranks 617 of 808 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Wisconsin on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Butternut
At the 18th national percentile, Butternut rates low for wildfire risk — well short of the threshold where insurers have been withdrawing coverage, though comparing a quote costs nothing either way.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
Butternut's 63.8% Indirect-exposure share points at embers, not flame contact, as the main pathway — ember-resistant vents and non-combustible roofing rank ahead of defensible space here. Detail in the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
Every one of the two percentiles behind Butternut's 25,956-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Butternut, see the exposure-zones guide.