Yes! I'm nerding out on this right now because we're looking into different ways of growing fodder trees for our animals. Many trees can be cut at ground level (coppicing) or higher up (pollarding) to be able to harvest the new growth for wood or animal fodder.

It's generally good for the trees themselves - they live for much longer - and there are examples in Europe of trees that have been pollarded or coppiced for hundreds of years. It sounds like CA tribes had a complex rhythm of coppicing and burning segments of forest to harvest different diameters and types of wood, and for forest rejuvenation and management. It's pretty cool.

All that said - I'm not an expert on identifying pollarded trees! They just tend to have that same knobby look as the ones in your photo.