Garden, MI
Garden wildfire risk explained
Garden sits at the 46th percentile nationally for wildfire risk to structures — modestly above the national average for wildfire risk — per USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model, built from its 226 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Garden at the 45th national percentile — 1 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
62.4% of Garden's 226 buildings fall in USFS's Indirect exposure zone — ember cast rather than direct flame — against 37.2% Direct and 0.4% Minimal. Vent screens and roofing material matter more here than lot clearing alone.
How Garden compares
Compare Garden's two percentiles: 94th within Michigan, only 46th nationally — a gap of 48 points that marks it as unusually exposed for its own state. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Garden ranks 17,049 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 23,916 by building count (1 is largest). Within Michigan alone, it ranks 48 of 745 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Michigan on its state page.
Garden and the insurance market
At the 46th national percentile, Garden rates elevated for wildfire risk — well short of the threshold where insurers have been withdrawing coverage, though comparing a quote costs nothing either way.
Hardening a home in Garden
Because 62.4% of Garden's buildings sit in the Indirect zone, sealing the ember pathway (vents, roofing, gutters) is the intervention this page's data actually supports — see the home-hardening guide.
Where Garden's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 226 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Garden. The exposure-zones guide covers what Garden's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.