Western monarch butterflies are nearly extinct. California has a plan to save them

A conservation effort is planting a poisonous flower along the state's central coast in hopes of lifting butterfly population

In one of the biggest mobilizations of resources and talent ever organized to save an insect, the state of California is teaming with conservation groups, biologists and scores of citizen scientists to rescue the western monarch butterfly from the brink of extinction.

To do this, they are placing their hopes on an unassuming, poisonous plant called milkweed.