Nelson, WI
Nelson wildfire risk explained
USFS scores Nelson at the 29th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range), a figure built from 271 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Nelson at the 30th percentile, close to its 29th-percentile risk score.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
271 buildings are counted in Nelson, and 71.6% of them are Indirect exposure — ember-driven risk rather than the 28.4% in Direct exposure or the 0% rated Minimal.
How Nelson compares
Compare Nelson's two percentiles: 63rd within Wisconsin, only 29th nationally — a gap of 33 points that marks it as unusually exposed for its own state. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Nelson ranks 22,331 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 22,493 by building count (1 is largest). Within Wisconsin alone, it ranks 305 of 808 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Wisconsin on its state page.
Nelson and the insurance market
Nelson's moderate rating (29th percentile nationally) sits outside the range where wildfire risk alone reshapes an insurance market — still, a homeowner here loses nothing by comparing rates.
What would actually reduce this score
Nelson's 71.6% 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.
More on how this number was built
Every one of the two percentiles behind Nelson's 22,331-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Nelson, see the exposure-zones guide.