San Francisco Bay cut invasive cordgrass by more than 97%; native Ridgway’s rails later expanded into restored former salt ponds as marsh habitat returned

The Ridgway's rail, a shy, chicken-sized marsh bird found nowhere on Earth but the reedy edges of San Francisco Bay, had quietly come to depend on an East Coast cordgrass never meant to grow on the West Coast at all. So when conservationists finally won their two-decade war against that invasive plant, the ending should've been simple: weed gone, bird saved, headline written.