So sad, but it happens all over the place. It isn't just liability either. I know a couple times in a village near us after a tornado went through and the dumped a lot of wood and let anyone get it. It was really a big mess that was caused and ended up costing the village a bunch to clean up and also repair part of the park that got all tore up, so they no longer do things like that, or so I'm told.
My old home town had a separate wood dump on the other side of town. You could get a "cutting permit" which was basically a waiver form that you signed. I had gone there a couple times but wood was rather poor quality. I wasnt a die hard scrounger at the time either. Scroungers ended up "fighting" over wood and it was shut down. I think the town guys would take the primo quality stuff. The state has a similar area near me and ive "sneaked" in there for wood years back. If this place had a form for that id sign it in a heartbeat of course.
You'd be surprised at how much abuse a tub grinder can take. Our pallet shop ground up wood waste full of nails all day 8 hrs a day 5 days a week. The only time it broke was when someone lost a hammer in the dumpster and was dumped into the grinder. They sold this to landscaping companies that would dye it and sell it as mulch, now they sell it to the state for storm drain barriers. I do agree it's a shame to see perfectly good firewood ground up though, what a waste.
Our town has a huge tub grinder. The end product has buyers so there's no access to their piles of stumps, branches and sometimes perfectly good crooked firewood logs unless you are contributing. The tub grinder is at the Town sewer solid waste facility. They also store lawn clippings and leaves here and cook them all together.
