Cedar, MI
How exposed is Cedar to wildfire?
USFS scores Cedar at the 23rd national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range), a figure built from 99 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Cedar at the 23rd national percentile — 0 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
71.7% of Cedar's 99 buildings fall in USFS's Indirect exposure zone — ember cast rather than direct flame — against 28.3% Direct and 0% Minimal. Vent screens and roofing material matter more here than lot clearing alone.
Cedar against the rest of the country
Compare Cedar's two percentiles: 71st within Michigan, only 23rd nationally — a gap of 49 points that marks it as unusually exposed for its own state. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Cedar ranks 24,361 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 29,087 by building count (1 is largest). Within Michigan alone, it ranks 215 of 745 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Michigan on its state page.
Cedar and the insurance market
Cedar's moderate wildfire rating (23rd percentile) isn't the kind of score driving the carrier pullback making news in the highest-risk Western markets — but a standard homeowners quote is still worth comparing on its own terms.
Hardening a home in Cedar
Cedar's 71.7% 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.
Where Cedar's figures come from
Cedar's 23rd-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Cedar's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.