Cotter, IA
Cotter, IA's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
USFS scores Cotter at the 45th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (modestly above the national average for wildfire risk), a figure built from 37 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Cotter at the 46th national percentile — 1 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Where Cotter's buildings actually sit
Only 8.1% of Cotter's 37 buildings carry Direct exposure and 0% carry Indirect; the remaining 91.9% are Minimal, which shifts the risk driving this page's score toward the surrounding landscape rather than any one structure.
How Cotter compares
Cotter's 61st-percentile standing inside Iowa outpaces its 45th national percentile — this is a hotter spot than most of its own state, even though the state as a whole runs cooler nationally. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Cotter ranks 17,388 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 31,226 by building count (1 is largest). Within Iowa alone, it ranks 397 of 1,017 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Iowa on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Cotter
Cotter's elevated rating (45th percentile nationally) sits outside the range where wildfire risk alone reshapes an insurance market — still, a homeowner here loses nothing by comparing rates.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
Cotter's 91.9% Minimal-exposure share means structure-level hardening matters less here than it would elsewhere — still worth the low-cost basics, per the home-hardening guide.
Where Cotter's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 37 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Cotter. The exposure-zones guide covers what Cotter's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.