According to court documents, the man told police he collected about 1,000 pounds of trash at a campground in Arizona’s Tonto National Forest, where he had lived for eight years.
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Mark Aaron Gatz pleaded guilty Monday to violating fire safety regulations and illegal residential use of federal forest land as part of a plea deal.
In a ruling filed Tuesday, he was sentenced to three months’ probation, ordered to pay a $20 criminal fine, waived up to $5,000 in restitution to the U.S. Forest Service, and agreed to avoid visiting Arizona national forests and using marijuana.
His attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday night. The assistant U.S. attorney for the District of Arizona did not immediately respond to a request for information.
Gatz was arrested June 25 and ordered held for trial, according to federal case files. He was originally charged as part of an 18-count federal indictment, including building illegal campfires, exceeding camping time limits and leaving trash in an unsanitary environment.
“Despite prior warnings and charges, the defendants unlawfully remained on USFS land and violated fire regulations,” U.S. Magistrate Judge Camille D. Bibles wrote in a June 30 order.
U.S. Forest Service officials wrote in a probable cause statement for the arrest warrant that they had contact with Gatz last year and this year. Gatz collected trash, including “tires, plastic bags, trash bags, aluminum cans, and other trash,” at the campground he had occupied for two years as of May, troopers wrote.
Officers found Gatz’s SUV about a half-mile down a two-way dirt trail under a canopy in the woods, the statement said.
“The bonfire was inside an illegal structure built of stone for cooking food,” one of the statements said.
One police officer estimated that the surrounding trash piles weighed 1,000 pounds.
In May 2025, federal agents warned Gatz to clean up his trash and leave the campground within two weeks, according to a statement filed in federal court in Flagstaff. Campers are limited to 14 days in the Tonto National Forest, located on the far western edge of Phoenix about 45 miles east-northeast of Phoenix.
Gatz told law enforcement he had been living in the woods for a total of about eight years before his arrest on June 25 of this year, according to the statement.
By then, he had collected six federal warrants, and officers said they had been previously warned about building campfires amid weather and other restrictions, the report said.
