Schlein Family

The cars were packed with family heirlooms and irreplaceable belongings. A wildfire had crossed from Sonoma County and was burning toward the Schlein family’s Oakville property, coming within roughly half a mile of the home where three generations of the family had gathered for nearly 50 years. All they could do was leave—and wait.

That experience changed how Ted Schlein thinks about wildfire.

“It was a wake-up call,” he says. Even now, during wildfire season, he finds himself constantly refreshing fire maps and emergency websites, tracking every new ignition and every shift in containment lines.

“It’s a terrible feeling,” he says. “It’s an unease I wish on no one.”

For Schlein, Napa Valley is far more than a destination. His father purchased the family’s Oakville property in the late 1970s. Ted grew up there, and later watched his own children do the same. The land has become woven into the family’s history.

“It’s an unbelievably special place to myself personally and my entire family,” he says.

Like many landowners, Schlein invested heavily in protecting his own property. He cleared hazardous vegetation, installed a 125,000-gallon water tank that gravity-feeds five fire hydrants, strengthened bridges so fire engines could safely cross them, and continues upgrading the property to make it more resilient. But those efforts also taught him something equally important.

That’s why he believes wildfire resilience can never be an individual effort.

“It takes the whole community to really make any progress and protect ourselves,” he says.

That philosophy is what led him to support Napa Firewise and the Valley Stewards Initiative.

Schlein was impressed not only by the people involved, but by the Initiative’s practical, data-driven approach. Rather than trying to solve every problem at once, he saw an organization focused on helping firefighters reach the right places faster with the right information.

“I’m not the professional who’s going to fight a fire,” he says. “Giving them access to the information they need…you’re not scrambling during an emergency to find it. Time and speed matter.”

Schlein has spent his career investing in innovative ideas. Supporting the Valley Stewards Initiative, he says, was another investment—this time in the long-term resilience of a place his family has cherished for generations.

“The houses I can rebuild,” he says. “The trees and nature would be devastated for a generation.”

His hope is that wildfire preparedness simply becomes part of everyday life in Napa Valley—a consideration whenever someone builds a home, clears vegetation, upgrades utilities or cares for their land. He believes everyone has a role to play, whether they own a small residential lot or hundreds of acres.

Ten years from now, Schlein’s vision of success is simple: families are still living in the homes they love, Napa’s forests remain healthy, firefighters have better information before emergencies begin and preparedness has become part of the culture of the valley.

Supporting the Valley Stewards Initiative, he believes, is one way to help make that future possible.