It's called pollarding. There's also quite a few trees that can be a pain if you want them gone. You can cut them down to stumps and they'll just send suckers

It's called pollarding. There's also quite a few trees that can be a pain if you want them gone. You can cut them down to stumps and they'll just send suckers up and try to grow again. My dad has been having it out with a lilac bush since I was a kid. He gets pissed off at it - I don't know why as it's a lovely bush - and lops it down to the ground. It's usually back within the year. I know sumac in particular is incredibly stubborn. When you're trying to remove them in prairie management, the general practice is to lop them off a couple inches above the ground and then apply herbicide to the cut. Otherwise and sometimes even in spite of this, they just grow right back. Historically, the prairies would burn every couple years. Native prairie grasses and flowers are adapted for this and regrew, but shrubs and less-established trees didn't fare as well. When humans figured out how to prevent the wildfires, those shrubs and young trees started to move into the grassland. Sumac tends to be one of the first infiltrators. Once a sumac stand is established, they shade out the grass. Larger trees follow and what was once grassland becomes a forested area.