Little Bitterroot Lake, MT
How exposed is Little Bitterroot Lake to wildfire?
Little Bitterroot Lake sits at the 89th percentile nationally for wildfire risk to structures — in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally — per USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model, built from its 303 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Little Bitterroot Lake at the 88th percentile, close to its 89th-percentile risk score.
Where Little Bitterroot Lake's buildings actually sit
98.7% of Little Bitterroot Lake's 303 buildings sit in USFS's Direct exposure zone, roughly 299 structures close enough to burnable vegetation for flame contact, not just embers — 0% fall in the Indirect, ember-only zone and 1.3% are Minimal.
Where Little Bitterroot Lake ranks
There's little gap between Little Bitterroot Lake's 89th national percentile and its 75th percentile inside Montana, which means the state comparison mostly confirms what the national score already shows. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Little Bitterroot Lake ranks 3,434 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 21,542 by building count (1 is largest). Within Montana alone, it ranks 120 of 475 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Montana on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Little Bitterroot Lake
Little Bitterroot Lake's 89th-percentile, very high rating is the kind of score behind a broader national pattern: insurers pulling back from the highest wildfire-risk markets, non-renewing or declining new policies outright, most visibly in California. Shopping around, not assuming automatic renewal, tends to matter here.
What would actually reduce this score
With 98.7% of Little Bitterroot Lake in Direct exposure, defensible-space clearing and ember-resistant construction (vents, Class-A roofing) address the exposure this page's own numbers describe, not a generic checklist. See the home-hardening guide.
Where Little Bitterroot Lake's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 303 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Little Bitterroot Lake. The exposure-zones guide covers what Little Bitterroot Lake's dominant direct exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.