Shepherd, MI
How exposed is Shepherd to wildfire?
Out of every US place USFS scores, Shepherd lands at the 4th percentile for wildfire risk to structures — among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally — a figure built from its 722 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Shepherd's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 3rd percentile nationally.
Shepherd's building exposure, zone by zone
88.4% of Shepherd's 722 buildings sit in USFS's Minimal exposure zone, with only 11.6% rated Direct — risk here comes from regional burn probability more than proximity to burnable vegetation at the structure itself.
Where Shepherd ranks
Shepherd's risk sits at a similar level relative to Michigan (6th percentile statewide) as it does nationally (4th) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Shepherd ranks 30,416 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 14,423 by building count (1 is largest). Within Michigan alone, it ranks 700 of 745 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Michigan on its state page.
Shepherd and the insurance market
At the 4th national percentile, Shepherd rates low for wildfire risk — well short of the threshold where insurers have been withdrawing coverage, though comparing a quote costs nothing either way.
What would actually reduce this score
With 88.4% of buildings rated Minimal exposure, Shepherd gets less benefit from structure hardening than a Direct- or Indirect-dominant place would — the home-hardening guide explains why the zone matters.
More on how this number was built
Every one of the two percentiles behind Shepherd's 30,416-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. For more on what minimal exposure implies beyond Shepherd, see the exposure-zones guide.