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Thousands of America’s Historic Landmarks Face Growing Wildfire Threat
0 Share Newsweek is a Trust Project member See more of our trusted coverage when you search. Prefer Newsweek on Google to see more of our trusted coverage when you search. More than half of the historic sites listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places face measurable wildfire exposure, new research has shown.
The study, published in Scientific Reports by researchers at the University of California, Santa Barbara's National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS), assessed every mappable site listed on the National Register of Historic Places and compared them against high-resolution wildfire burn probability models. The study found that of the 100,117 sites examined, 3,446 face severe risk.
The research highlights an “urgent and largely unplanned-for threat to irreplaceable cultural heritage,” the university said in a statement. More than a third (36 percent) of the exposed places are nationally significant, while most are state or locally significant, the study showed.
The findings come as wildfires have continued to devastate culturally significant locations across the United States.
When the Palisades Fire swept through Los Angeles in January 2025, it destroyed the Will Rogers Ranch House, while the Eaton Fire wiped out the Andrew McNally House, the researchers noted. Months later, the Dragon Bravo wildfire burned through Grand Canyon National Park and destroyed the Grand Canyon Lodge, originally built in 1927.
The researchers said: “In each of these examples, the buildings were completely lost, and it is uncertain whether any reconstruction efforts will meaningfully restore the cultural and historic value they represented.”
"These places anchor community identity, collective memory, and national heritage," corresponding author Caitlin Fong, a researcher at NCEAS, said in the university statement. She warned that, unlike homes, many historic places cannot simply be rebuilt and “they are gone forever,” once destroyed.
Kevin Feak, a licensed fire protection engineer and National Fire Protection Association (NFPA)-certified fire protection specialist, told Newsweek that the study's findings are significant, noting that the threat is "expanding into areas that have not traditionally treated wildfire as a primary building hazard."
"In many wildfires, buildings ignite from embers that collect on roofs, enter vents or gaps, or ignite nearby vegetation and combustible materials rather than from direct flame contact," he told Newsweek .
According to the researchers, high-risk cultural heritage resources are concentrated in the western United States, while additional hotspots are emerging in southeastern and south-central states.
The study noted that this distribution mirrors historical patterns of wildfire-related structural loss, particularly in California, Oregon, and Colorado, while also pointing to new areas that may require increased attention from preservation programs.
The authors also found that historic buildings and districts form 90 percent of the listed resources, and they face unique challenges because they are immovable and derive much of their cultural significance from their original physical structures.
As a result, the loss of such sites can represent a permanent loss of heritage. The researchers said that mitigation efforts must occur on-site and may include “vegetation and fuel management, structural hardening, and enhanced suppression capacity.”
"The loss of historic properties to wildfire is a growing concern," the researchers wrote, while noting that relatively few well-documented cases exist, limiting understanding of the full consequences for cultural heritage.
However, they said one point is clear, noting “wildfire can completely destroy the physical structure of a historic property and erase the features that give it cultural and historical significance."
The study's authors warned that climate change is likely to intensify wildfire threats to cultural heritage sites.
"Climate change, with its associated increases in temperature, drought frequency, and extreme fire weather, is likely to intensify these trends, expanding hazard zones and elevating the exposure of cultural heritage sites in both traditionally high-risk and previously lower-risk regions," they wrote. The researchers added that shifting wildfire dynamics mean additional areas could require mitigation and preservation measures in the future.
Their findings are consistent with broader wildfire research.
A study published in Environmental Research: Climate earlier this month reported "intensifying fire weather severity in Mediterranean-type ecosystems, western North America, and boreal forests," alongside increasing high-severity fire extent in temperate conifer forests and lengthening fire seasons globally.
Meanwhile, a February 2026 study in Nature Communications said there is "growing concern" that recent increases in wildfire occurrence and intensity will continue in the future. The researchers noted that weather conditions associated with wildfire risk consistently increase in climate-change projections and pointed to evidence that megafires are becoming more frequent in some regions.
That February study also noted that climate change can influence wildfire risk in multiple ways. While warmer conditions can sometimes reduce fuel loads and continuity, reducing the fire risk, the researchers said warmer and drier conditions can also alter vegetation composition and landscape flammability, potentially increasing fire risk in some areas.
For historic landmarks, the implications could be particularly significant. The nation's most valued cultural assets may increasingly find themselves on the front lines of a changing wildfire landscape.
Farnisa, M. M., Halpern, B. S., Fong, C. R., et al. (2026). Wildfire Risk to United States Cultural Resources. Scientific Reports . https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-026-52407-9
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