Wayland, MI
Wayland wildfire risk explained
USFS scores Wayland at the 11th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally), a figure built from 1,631 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 Wayland at the 11th percentile, close to its 11th-percentile risk score.
Where Wayland's buildings actually sit
1,631 buildings are counted in Wayland, and 64.1% of them are Indirect exposure — ember-driven risk rather than the 9.9% in Direct exposure or the 25.9% rated Minimal.
Wayland against the rest of the country
Compare Wayland's two percentiles: 38th within Michigan, only 11th nationally — a gap of 27 points that marks it as unusually exposed for its own state. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Wayland ranks 28,054 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 8,648 by building count (1 is largest). Within Michigan alone, it ranks 464 of 745 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Michigan on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
Wayland's low rating (11th 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
With ember exposure the dominant pattern in Wayland (64.1% Indirect), vent screens and roofing material tend to matter more than lot clearing alone. The home-hardening guide covers both.
More on how this number was built
Wayland's 11th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Wayland, see the exposure-zones guide.