Short answer. Yes, but with a replacement duty attached. Article 575 of the Civil Code lets a usufructuary of fruit-bearing trees and shrubs make use of dead trunks, and even those cut off or uprooted by accident, but only under the obligation to replace them with new plants.
What the law says
The usufructuary of fruit-bearing trees and shrubs may make use of the dead trunks, and even of those cut off or uprooted by accident, under the obligation to replace them with new plants.
Civil Code, Article 575 — Fruit Trees and Shrubs. Read the full provision →
What the usufructuary is allowed to use
Article 575 covers two specific situations: the usufructuary of fruit-bearing trees and shrubs may make use of the dead trunks, and even of those cut off or uprooted by accident. A tree that has simply died is fair game, and so is one that came down through an accident — a storm, for instance — rather than through anything the usufructuary deliberately did. The word "even" signals that the second category, accidental loss, might seem like a closer call than a tree that died naturally, and the article resolves that doubt in the usufructuary's favor as well.
The replacement obligation is the trade-off
That permission does not come free. The same sentence adds the condition: under the obligation to replace them with new plants. Making use of the dead or fallen trunk is tied directly to planting something new in its place. The article does not treat this as optional or as something the owner has to separately demand — the obligation attaches automatically to the act of using the trunk, as the other half of the same rule.
Why trunks are singled out from the trees themselves
This article is narrowly about what happens to a tree once it is dead or down, not about the usufructuary's broader relationship with living fruit-bearing trees still standing and producing. It addresses the trunk as a piece of material the usufructuary may use, once the tree itself is no longer functioning as a living, fruit-bearing tree, and pairs that use with a duty to keep the planting going forward rather than letting the number of trees dwindle over time.
What Article 575 leaves unanswered
The article does not say what happens if the usufructuary uses the dead or fallen trunk but never gets around to replacing it, nor does it set a timeframe for when the new planting has to happen. It also does not address a tree the usufructuary deliberately cuts down rather than one that died or fell by accident. Those situations fall outside what this specific rule covers, so anyone facing them should not assume this article's answer extends that far.