Typically you remove the foliage HISM and spawn the new pieces at the same location. For multiplayer its a bit more complicated.
I’d personally make the chops material based. Use a DMI to update the material instance.
So On initial interaction (first chop) spawn the replacement actor, then remove the instance.
Apply the DMI effects to the new actor. Once enough dmg has been applied enable physics on the top aspect, then disable physics on rest. Bump dampening to speed up the rest.