A man who told authorities he spent about eight years living in a national forest in Arizona now faces up to five years in federal prison. Court filings say 65-year-old Mark Aaron Gatz was arrested June 25 in Tonto National Forest, where an officer reported finding what appeared to be a makeshift homestead and roughly 1,000 pounds of trash spread across around an acre near popular recreation trails, the Independent reports. The Forest Service officer said it was one of the worst cases of its kind that they had seen and that they were "flabbergasted by the amount of debris in the area."
Forest Service records describe multiple "large structures," vehicle canopies, fire pits, active embers, and piles of debris including drums, tires, bike frames, and containers of motor oil. Gatz told authorities he had been living in the forest for eight years and had been at that particular site for two years. The Forest Service said much of the site was "ruined due to so much trash and goods on the ground for an extended period of time."
Gatz allegedly had at least six outstanding federal warrants tied to fire and residency violations on forest land and a history of missing court dates; a judge has ordered him detained as a flight risk. He's charged with a slate of offenses, including illegally residing on federal land, building structures and roads, ignoring fire restrictions, and leaving waste. Federal rules generally cap camping in national forests at 14 days in any 30-day period.
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