Cottage Grove, WI
Cottage Grove, WI's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
Out of every US place USFS scores, Cottage Grove lands at the 38th percentile for wildfire risk to structures — close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range — a figure built from its 2,226 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Cottage Grove at the 39th national percentile — 0 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Cottage Grove's building exposure, zone by zone
Only 24.4% of Cottage Grove's 2,226 buildings carry Direct exposure and 36.2% carry Indirect; the remaining 39.5% are Minimal, which shifts the risk driving this page's score toward the surrounding landscape rather than any one structure.
Where Cottage Grove ranks
Within Wisconsin, Cottage Grove ranks higher (90th percentile) than it does nationally (38th) — one of the more fire-exposed places in a state that, overall, scores lower than that. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Cottage Grove ranks 19,432 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 6,875 by building count (1 is largest). Within Wisconsin alone, it ranks 86 of 808 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Wisconsin on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
Cottage Grove's moderate wildfire rating (38th 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.
What would actually reduce this score
Even with 39.5% of Cottage Grove outside USFS's Direct and Indirect zones, basic hardening — gutter maintenance, ember-resistant vents — is inexpensive relative to the regional burn-probability risk noted above. Details in the home-hardening guide.
Where Cottage Grove's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 2,226 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Cottage Grove. The exposure-zones guide covers what Cottage Grove's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.