With many states failing to include cultural heritage in their dedicated wildfire planning frameworks, UC Santa Barbara’s National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS) conducted the first ever national assessment of wildfire risk to American cultural heritage. Using the National Register of Historic Places’ listing of 100,117 locations, the study focused on those on land and with specified spatial geometry; eliminating duplicated listings such as ones with shared locations, they found that only 31,939 were not at risk of wildfire damage.

The study also includes an interactive map for the remaining 56,103 locations that they assessed, and cultural professionals can look up the level of risk that their respective institutions and sites can face.

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