Is there a workaround that rescues foliage from the Landscape Section size scorched earth bug?

Hello, the version of UE4 (4.18.2) that I’m stuck with has a bug where changing the landscape Section Size in the Landscape Change Component Size tool removes ALL placed foliage. Heart stopping stuff, as I recently discovered after realizing I need to optimize and reduce the Landscape Section Size on a map with a large amount of foliage. It looks like this bug (UE-53343) has been fixed in 4.20 but upgrading isn’t an option for me. I know that foliage is tied in a fundamental way to the landscape its spawned upon, but is anyone aware of a potential sneaky workaround? I’m happy to test hacky solutions so long as its quicker and less painful than losing lots of foliage placement work. I’m 90% sure this whole episode will be a painful lesson learnt, but I’ll be very happy if anyone can prove me wrong. Thanks.