Introduction

EFI2025 Conference	We are looking forward to convening the EFI community at the EFI 2025 Conference on May 19-22, 2025 at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia! Individuals are invited from academia, government agencies, industry and the non-profit sectors to come together in person to share cutting-edge research and applications in ecological forecasting broadly. There will be three days with keynote addresses, short research presentations, poster sessions, open time for networking, and a field trip into the mountains. The fourth day will be time for working group activities and training workshops. Conference details are available at https://ecoforecast.org/efi-2025-conference/
European EFI Chapter Monthly Seminars	The European EFI Chapter (EEFI) monthly seminars series is scheduled from now to March 2025 and is available on the EEFI Seminars webpage! On 11th September, 2024 at 1pm CET Jaana Bäck from the University of Helsinki will present on "eLTER research infrastructure – what is there for ecological forecasting community?" Get the details and the calendar invites for the September seminar, the schedule of upcoming seminars and recordings from previous calls on the EEFI Seminars webpage.
Oceania EFI Chapter Monthly Seminars	There are two more Oceania EFI Chapter (OEFI) seminars scheduled for 2024! 30th September – Yan Zheng (Southern University of Science and Technology China) will present on "Harmful algal bloom forecasting from a land-ocean continuum perspective" Register at: https://bit.ly/46mLLfw 26th November - Matthew Rees (CSIRO) will present on "Forecasting mouse plagues in Australian grain growing regions" Register at: https://bit.ly/4gdbmvO The November call will not be recorded so plan to join in person. Recordings from previous calls are available at https://ecoforecast.org/oceania-ecological-forecasting-initiative/
See the latest EFI paper!	"Defining model complexity: An ecological perspective" came out on May 17, 2024 in Meteorological Applications https://doi.org/10.1002/met.2202. This paper was written by EFI Student Association members! Congratulations to co-authors Charlotte Malmborg (Boston U), Alyssa Willson (U of Notre Dame), L.M. Bradley (Emory U), Meghan Beatty (U of Florida), Dave Klinges (U of Florida), Gerbrand Koren (Utrecht U), Abigail Lewis (Virginia Tech), Kayode Oshinubi (Northern Arizona U), and Whitney Woelmer (Virginia Tech)
Virginia Ecoforecast Reservoir Analysis (VERA)	New forecasting challenge opportunity! This project is hosted by the Virginia Tech Center for Ecosystem Forecasting and is part of the NSF-funded Virginia Reservoirs LTREB program. The Challenge includes 12 focal freshwater variables with over 11 years of historical data from two reservoirs. Target variables include physical, chemical (n=6), and biological (n=2). There are many additional datasets collected in near-real time at the reservoirs that can also be used for forecasting even though they are not the focal target variables evaluated in the VERA Challenge. See more details HERE
EFI-USGS River Chlorophyll Forecasting Challenge	This newly launched forecasting challenge is now accepting forecast submissions for river chlorophyll. Find more information about the importance of creating forecasts for river chlorophyll, how to get involved, and who is organizing HERE. See the full description of the Challenge, submitted forecasts, and resources at: https://projects.ecoforecast.org/usgsrc4cast-ci/
	We have finished the third round of the Statistical Methods Webinar series co-hosted by EFI and the ESA Statistical Ecology Section. Details about the fourth round of the Webinar series will be posted once finalized as we get closer to September 2024. Recordings and resources from all the webinars are available on the Statistical Methods Seminar webpage . Each seminar is 1.5 hour in length and is led by an invited speaker with expertise on a given topic or statistical method. Speakers spend the first part of the webinar presenting a project where they used the method, followed by sharing R code or packages related used for the statistical method. Presenters walk through the code, taking time to describe common pitfalls or stumbling blocks for performing the method and visualizing results.
Short Course Resource Available	The Canadian EFI Chapter hosted a week-long short course in July 2023 titled “Forecasting for Decision-Making: An Epidemiological & Ecological Perspective" The main purpose of this course was to build skills for producing more reliable and decision-relevant forecasts. In the spirit of having the course be as open as possible, the course materials are available including lectures, exercises, and forecast modelling materials for three case studies: Infectious Disease Control, Fisheries Management, Water Quality Monitoring. The playlist of the lectures is available on the EFI YouTube channel here and the exercises and case study materials are on GitHub here.
	The EFI-NEON Research Coordination Network is an NSF-funded grant to create a community of practice that builds capacity for ecological forecasting by leveraging NEON data products. Forecasts can be submitted to any of the Challenge themes: terrestrial carbon and water fluxes, plant phenology, aquatic surface temperature, oxygen, and chlorophyll-a, tick populations, and beetle communities. Find more details about participating in the Challenge or using it for classroom instruction at neon4cast.org.
	About: Mission Statement, Shared Values & Principles, Member Profiles and Forecasting Projects
	Working Groups Organized Around Seven Cross-Cutting Themes: Theory; Statistical Methods & Tools; Cyberinfrastructure; Education; Diversity, Equity & Inclusion; Translation and Actionable Science; Standards for Forecast Output and Metadata
	Resources: Publications, Educational and Multimedia Resources, Videos
	Stay Connected: Our Listserv shares high-level announcements, our Blog highlights forecasting activities going on, you can follow us on Twitter @ecoforecast, or you can request to join our community of forecasters on Slack (send request to eco4cast.initiative@gmail.com)