For the past few months, Morgan Rice has called Coconino National Forest home.
Rice and his girlfriend, along with their dog Rio and cat Kit, have been camping full-time since August in a 32-foot 2006 Ford Diesel van. When monthly rent for a one-bedroom apartment in Avondale rose from about $800 to over $1,300, the couple couldn’t keep up.
“They were taller than us,” Rice said.
So they traded in a jeep, bought a van and set off on their journey.
As housing becomes increasingly inaccessible in Arizona and across the country, more people are flocking to the woods and setting up camps on public land. For some, living off the grid is a lifestyle choice. For others, it’s a last resort. In some areas of Arizona, average rents have risen as much as 30 or 40% since 2020, forcing many to move out.
Part of this upward trend is a side effect of the state’s deepening housing crisis. There is also growing concern about the potential impact on state protected areas and neighboring communities.
In the wake of this year’s devastating wildfire season, an influx of campers is putting northern Arizona residents and forest officials at risk. or a campfire at dinner can set the forest ablaze. A pipeline fire that devoured more than 25,000 acres of his land a few miles north of Flagstaff in June was caused by his 57-year-old man burning his toilet paper and placing it under a rock.
Long-term camping presents other challenges as well. Garbage must be collected and camper safety must be ensured.
But for some people who recently started living on public land, it was worth trading the unaffordable rent for a more cost-effective and adventurous lifestyle.
Life in a van isn’t perfect for Rice. It’s hard to move every few weeks, and he has to drive nearly an hour to get to work in Sedona. But his van has everything you need: a TV, a queen-size mattress, two of his kayaks, and his rack of spices. He and his girlfriend make a point of keeping it clean and even participate in forest cleanups in the fall.
All in all, he doesn’t miss apartment life.
“We have a great view of the stars,” he said. “No noisy neighbors”.
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“I’m old and it’s kind of crushing”
Long-term campers, also called “non-recreational campers” by academics and forest officials, are those who camp beyond the two-week limit on most public lands. This category includes everyone from people experiencing homelessness and trying to escape rising rents, to RV retirees and free spirits living off the grid.
This idea is not new. Research shows that people have taken refuge on public lands since the Great Depression. In 1992, the National Forest Service Oregon Campgrounds For people experiencing homelessness only.
Long-term campers are temporary and can be difficult to find, so there is no reliable data on their numbers.
In late October, the Arizona Republic spoke to more than six campers in Coconino National Forest near Flagstaff.
For some, the decision to move to the forest was easy.
“Houses are terrible and cost too much. Maybe living in a trailer would be nice,” said Shaun Ylatupa-McWhorter, a remote tech worker. After the rent of his two-bedroom apartment in central Phoenix rose to his $1,800, he bought his 24-foot trailer, outfitted it with solar power and some stand-up his desk. and moved to the forest in the summer of 2022. Time bikes, rock climbing and composing on modular synthesizers.
Nearby Chelsea Henning lives with her boyfriend and dog Kaya in a converted yellow school bus surrounded by evergreens. Henning, a house cleaner in Flagstaff, says she’s always wanted to live off the grid. She took a leap when the rent there went up. The refurbished bus was about $10,000, she said.
“When the opportunity presented itself, I jumped at it,” said Henning, who is still out of town every day for work.
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For others, camping is a last resort. Pamela Karr-Wiseman and Daniel Wiseman lost their jobs during the pandemic and were quickly evicted. For the past two years, the couple has been living in a tent off a dirt road deep in the woods.
“I was working all the time,” Karr-Wiseman said. “I’ve established a life, a home, a lifestyle more than once, and to make it happen this time — I’m getting old.
Arizona is in the middle of an affordable housing crisis. According to the Arizona Department of Housing, the state is short of about 270,000 homes. The Phoenix area’s eviction rate rose in 2022 after the pandemic-related eviction moratorium ended. The Valley is also experiencing high inflation, making housing even more affordable.
Ah 2019 survey The U.S. Forest Service and the University of San Jose investigated the relationship between homelessness and long-term camps.
“Temporary residence in national forests could be a low-overhead option for people experiencing poverty, unemployment, or housing displacement,” the study found.
U.S. Forest Service Flagstaff District Ranger Matthew McGrath says the number of long-term campers has steadily increased over the past four years.
“Flagstaff real estate continues to be insane and technically illegal, but we don’t expect it to go down,” he said.
respect the land and people
The US Forest Service has two missions. “Treasure the land and serve the people”. But as long-term camps increase, two things can go against each other.
Long-term camps have resulted in environmental disasters in some cases. Chronically homeless man in the woods, 2006 caused a wildfire In Southern California, throw a cigarette butt or two on the ground. The Day Fire he burned down more than 160,000 acres of Los Padres National Forest and cost him $73 million.
Long-term camping can also cause other environmental harm, such as the creation of unauthorized forest roads and the disruption of wildlife. have been shown to be more vulnerable to internal abuse, and drug use.
Flagstaff resident Travis Bohlen, who lives near Walnut Canyon, said the increase in campers of all kinds was “incredibly frightening.” Last summer, he said, a group of people just a few yards from his driveway set up an illegal bonfire. Meanwhile, pipeline fires were tearing through the land just a short distance away.
“I think it’s a degree of ignorance and a lack of understanding of fire regulations,” he said. “But when you can clearly see large fires in mountainous areas, you would think people would have more common sense.”
The U.S. Forest Service’s McGrath says it can be difficult to balance the humanity of campers with the need to keep forests safe. Fires are the most immediate concern, but his colleagues are also cleaning up piles of trash left by some campers, including five-gallon buckets of human waste.
“You can fill up your pickup truck with trash in no time and take it to the dump, but there are still dozens of trucks’ worth of trash left,” he said.
In 2015, a homeless man was convicted throw away 8,500 pounds of trash In Colorado’s Uncompahgre National Forest. Garbage had to be airlifted out of the forest by helicopter.
Steve Johnson, founder of off-grid camping site Boondocker’s Bible, says it’s not fair to group all campers together. He has a vested interest in keeping public lands open, so he believes campers and a few homeless people start fires and dump garbage on weekends, not people who live in RVs and cars. increase.
“Instead of blaming the increased public use of these lands, the blame should lie on the reduced funding of firefighters and forest rangers,” he wrote in an email.
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Camp rules are hard to follow
Federal law makes it illegal to camp on most public land for more than two weeks. But forest officials say the rules are difficult to enforce.
Central Violations data shows that between January 2020 and November 2022, federal law enforcement made more than 300 appearances in Arizona for camping longer than allowed on national forest land. issued an order. Over a third were issued in the Coconino National Forest.
These figures are likely to represent only a small fraction of those who stay beyond the two-week limit. The Forest Service’s McGrath said enforcing the time limit would be very difficult, as he only has two law enforcement officers in the district covering 1,300 square miles.
“To prove that someone has been there for 14 days, you have to be there literally every day and see them.
Land Management spokesperson Brian Hiers said issuing a breach notice is a “last resort.” Rangers usually try to connect people to resources first, he wrote in an email.
McGrath said the U.S. Forest Service is working with Flagstaff and Coconino County to find long-term solutions.
“If you’re just trying to get people out of the forest, you’ll be doing it forever,” he said. “But if we can find better opportunities for those people, it’s a win for everyone.”
Republic reporter Lacey Latch contributed to this report.
Juliette Rihl covers housing insecurity and homelessness in the Republic of Arizona.she can be reached at jrihl@arizonarepublic.com or on twitter @julietterihl.
Azcentral.com and its coverage of housing insecurity in the Republic of Arizona are supported by a grant from the Arizona Community Foundation.
