Hi, FB

Yes, I've seen trees do this many a time. And naturally. In fact, it happens to trees that fall after storms or high winds and many new trees will come up eventually around the fallen one.

However, I've never seen the verb "coppice," although I've seen and recognized the noun form and had just assumed it meant a copse, so it's pretty exciting for me--a great tree lover--to now have a verb for what I've seen many times in nature.

I saw once a red mulberry tree that someone had cut back to get rid of it, and the next season dozens of young mulberries came up from the cut-off trunk. That's a little different in application in that the tree was entirely cut back, so I'm not sure whether your coppice verb would apply. However, I'll check my tree references and see whether I can find some quotes for you.

Thanks very much for the verb.