News Man Sentenced After Living in National Forest for Years

July 8, 2026

Aman has been sentenced after he was found living illegally in a national forest for years. What’s more, his campsite had amassed nearly 1,000 pounds of trash around it.

Mark Aaron Gatz was arrested on June 25 after officers found his campsite, located a half mile into an unmarked dirt trail in Arizona’s Tonto National Forest. As NBC News reports, he had built a canopy structure over his SUV and was burning a campfire in a stone structure designed for cooking. Surrounding the campsite was an unusually large amount of refuse and debris. He was initially charged with building illegal fires, overstaying time limits for camping, leaving trash in unsanitary conditions and related counts as part of an 18-count federal indictment. THE Inertia