Nerstrand, MN
Nerstrand wildfire risk explained
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Nerstrand at the 13th national percentile for risk to structures, among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally — a score built from 218 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Nerstrand at the 12th 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
Nerstrand rates 46.8% Minimal exposure against just 17.9% Direct and 35.3% Indirect — of 218 buildings counted, few sit close enough to burnable vegetation for USFS to flag them individually.
Where Nerstrand ranks
Nerstrand scores 13th nationally and 17th within Minnesota — close enough that its state context doesn't change the picture the national number already gives. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Nerstrand ranks 27,390 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 24,202 by building count (1 is largest). Within Minnesota alone, it ranks 761 of 914 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Minnesota on its state page.
Nerstrand and the insurance market
Nerstrand's low wildfire rating (13th 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.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
Even with 46.8% of Nerstrand 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.
More on how this number was built
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 218 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Nerstrand. For more on what minimal exposure implies beyond Nerstrand, see the exposure-zones guide.