What did they chop down? The russian olive trees? A few years ago they chopped all the russian olives down in the Wahluke W.A. in an effort to restore the native plants. Thats federal land though, I am not sure if Desert is or not. I believe they were having trouble with purple loosestrife in Desert in recent years, maybe it has something to do with that.
The fire there a couple years ago didn't help the russian olives either.
Yeah, that fire scorched the Wahluke to dirt. Its coming back nicely now though.