Timo Granzotti
RCD Senior Designer & Instructor
Timoteo Granzotti is a Senior Designer and Instructor for The Resilient Community Design Program and Permaculture Design Course at the OAEC. He holds 20 years of experience in California and Mediterranean native ecology. Timo specializes in whole-systems design, agroforestry, TEK (Traditional Ecological Knowledge) and ethnobotany, focusing on the dynamic relationship between humans and nature. He has taught and consulted on projects throughout California, the USA, The Brazilian Amazon, Costa Rica, and Kenya. He has worked in various sectors, from urban to broad-acre, with an emphasis on BIPOC and indigenous regenerative land stewardship, food systems, and native biodiversity. In 2014, Timo was curriculum developer and co-lead instructor for Pathways to Resilience (P2R), a re-entry Permaculture certification program for formerly incarcerated individuals from select California prisons, at Merritt College. He was a guest speaker for the 35th Annual EcoFarm Conference, and in 2024 gave a talk on Ecological Resiliency for TEDx. He collaborates with many groups, organizations and events annually, working as a teacher, organizer, and consultant. Timo is also a certified wilderness skills expert with a passion for Indigenous technologies, and was a founding co-organizer for the Buckeye Gathering, an annual earth-skills based immersive. His interest lies in the creative use of his hands, and the preservation of intergenerational knowledge, art, and cultural history.
On Staff Since: 2025 Email >
In Their Own Words
My work at OAEC:
I help bridge the relationship between people and natural environments, I am an advocate and educator, promoting our beneficial role as ecosystem engineers and collaborators. I help design and implement regenerative, biodiverse, and socially just solutions for establishing and supporting resilient communities.
My background:
I was born in Alaska, of mixed Ethiopian-Italian ethnicity. I was raised by a single mother, a nurse and refugee displaced by war. Diverse cultural and ecological landscapes deeply influenced my path. Exposure to the vast wilderness and Indigenous First Nations was foundational and shaped my perspective. I spent my childhood rockclimbing, mountaineering, skiing, camping, and fishing with my older siblings. I was an artist at my core, I loved to draw and make things. To inspire me there were moose, whales, walruses, bears, wolves, eagles, and there were totem poles and dog-sleds and Inuit solstice celebrations. When I was in my teens, I moved to Sicily. These were formative years: artisan traditions, and travels throughout Italy, Europe, and North Africa. It was from those years that my interests in anthropology, history, literature, art, and culture deepened. I fell in love with foraging and cooking. I would go into the hills harvesting wild herbs with elders, or go fishing on small rowboats with the fishermen, we would make wine and regional foods. I absorbed it all as I moved from place to place. When I moved back to the United States, I landed in Santa Cruz. At the time, my desire was to be a writer and photojournalist. I studied black-and-white photography. Plants grabbed me instead. I switched my major to botany, and a new path began. This was a time of deep study: native biology, organic agriculture, forest ecology, soil science, landscape design, my curiosity took me in all directions. I worked in various environments and locations, with a range of applications, amassing experience and skill. It was at this time that I also immersed myself in wilderness skills, tracking, and TEK, exploring California’s varied nature areas, collaborating with various California Native Peoples and skilled mentors. This was just the beginning, the first influences that set me on a path, and from that time it has continued to take new shapes and directions.
My dream project:
To travel the world documenting and assisting indigenous land stewardship practices and ancient food systems.
My passions:
My passion is centered in intergenerational land stewardship, culture and tradition; passing down knowledge through skills, storytelling, and integrative systems. My passion is to inspire, to be an advocate for greater eco-literacy, and to reconnect peoples-to-place through hybrid earth management solutions.
Woodcarving and sculpture are meditative creative outlets, teaching me through the interaction of wood and hand-tools. In the making of traditional art, I feel connected. I find that many of my passions: woodcarving, art, music, cooking, land stewardship, ecology, all have a place of connection: ancestry, nature and tradition.
Why my work matters:
‘When we plant trees, we plant the seeds of peace and the seeds of hope.’ – Wangari Maathai
We are in need of solutions, innovative solutions that weave community with the land, and I believe education is what drives all of it. My work aims to support and help rebuild these pathways, to carry them forward in the face of change, and to do so generationally. In this way, we define true resilience: adaptive and interconnected.
My favorite resiliency resource:
I believe awareness is the greatest tool, and biomimicry is a limitless resource for innovation. The books 1491, Tending the Wild, Imperfect Balance, One Straw Revolution, and A Forest Journey are inspiring accounts for a greater understanding of our collective history and what resiliency could mean for our future.
What speaks to me:
Natural refinement, perfect imperfection. Simplicity. Wabi-sabi. Ancient themes. A forest path. The sound of a creek. A scented flower blooming. A garden, a kitchen, a workshop. Museums, music, fireplaces. Knives, axes, and rocks.
The happiest I’ve ever been:
After an amazing meal.
