He ignored warnings for years: now this Arizona campsite is finally empty

A years-long illegal campsite in Arizona’s Tonto National Forest has finally been cleared, after the man living there pleaded guilty to federal charges connected to his roughly eight-year stay on public land.

Mark Aaron Gatz, 65, admitted to unlawfully residing in the forest and to violating federal fire restrictions, according to court records. He was sentenced to time served followed by three years of probation, closing a case that U.S. Forest Service officers had worked for years to resolve.

Officers said they had returned to the same remote area repeatedly, issuing warnings, citations and clean-up orders after visitors complained about a large, sprawling camp. Gatz told investigators he had spent his last two years at the specific campsite where he was arrested, though he had lived in the broader Payson Pine section of the forest for a much longer stretch before that.

Inspections of the site turned up an estimated 1,000 pounds of trash across roughly half an acre, including discarded clothing, tools, old tires, plastic bags, aluminum cans, containers of used motor oil and several makeshift structures Gatz had built over the years.

Court filings also note that Gatz had six outstanding federal warrants tied to earlier violations by the time officers returned on June 25 and found him running an active wood-burning fire despite Stage 2 fire restrictions. He said he needed it to cook food. Federal regulations generally restrict camping in national forests to 14 days within any 30-day period.

Authorities had weighed seeking thousands of dollars in restitution for environmental damage but ultimately settled the case without those payments. What is still missing from the public record is any explanation of why Gatz chose to live in the forest for nearly a decade in the first place.

Wikimedia Commons/by Toastdebunny