The education about the soil disease is hoped to spread as fast as the disease is feared to spread if ignored.
Clubroot information sessions are taking part in the county this week, offering area farmers a chance to reduce the effects of the sweeping disease in their fields.
Agronomy specialist Dan Orchard with the Canola Council of Canada says the spread of the fast-moving disease - which can wither canola crops and remain in the soil for up to 20 years - has now been identified in Lac La Biche County.
In 2003, just a handful of fields in Alberta were identified to hold the disease. By 2014 there were 50 fields identified. Last year it was found in more than 36 counties, including Lac La Biche. The first instance of the disease was reported in the western portion of the county last November.
Researchers across the globe are trying to find ways to control the fast-spreading disease. That fight has now come to the fields of Lac La Biche County.
"We are chasing this atom bomb from behind the leading edge," said Orchard in a recent meeting with Lac La Biche County councilors. "Undoubtedly, it's not going to get any better. It's going to get worse."
The clubroot spores - up to a billion in a single gram of soil - attach to canola plants below the ground and choke away the nutrients. Orchard said that clubroot is not a canola disease, but a soil disease and canola is currently an indicator. Unfortunately, he warned, once the canola crop shows signs of the disease "... it's too late."
Once a field has been found to contain the disease, a strict management plan has to be implemented - and that's what is being addressed at two public meetings this week.
Local and provincial agricultural specialists are meeting in Plamondon and Craigend for information sessions. The Plamonon meeting will go Monday night starting at 5:30 at the Festival Centre and the Craigend meeting goes Tuesday night starting at 5:30 pm at the Craigend Hall.
Orchard says in 90 per cent of the fields, the spores are found at field entrances, indicating it is brought into areas by dirt trapped on machinery.
"Undoubtedly, as a farmer, as a community, you are going to be dealing with this disease. Once you get one ... well, it didn't fall from the sky."
For farmers and producers can't make this week's information sessions, the municipality's Agricultural Services department has a lot of information about the disease and the best practices to reduce its advance.
Environmental Services manager Molly Fyten says clubroot management is a huge focus this year.
"If it's in one place, it's going to be everywhere else. I'm expecting to find quite a bit of it this year," she said.
The provincial Clubroot Management Plan can be found here.
