Planting or allowing a few milkweed plants to grow in residential yards, parks, and empty lots, along roadsides and boulevards, as well as on school, church, and commercial properties, could play a major role in saving North America’s iconic monarch butterflies from extinction, a study from Chicago’s Field Museum shows.

The eastern population of monarchs has declined over 80 percent and the western population is nearly extinct, with just 3 percent of its population remaining.

"Metropolitan areas actually matter for wildlife conservation, and that's especially true for pollinators like the monarch that can survive with very small patches of habitat," says Abigail Derby Lewis, a senior conservation ecologist at the Field Museum and lead author of the paper published today