STEWARDS: A decade of increasing the impact of Agricultural Research Service watershed research programs

The online database Sustaining the Earth's Watersheds–Agricultural Research Data System (STEWARDS), was developed in a six year project by a team from several USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS) locations to deliver weather, hydrology, and water quality data to the public. Launched as part of the Conservation Effects Assessment Project (CEAP; Mausbach and Dedrick 2004), the timeline started with 2002 to 2003's Conception and Agency commitment, extended through July 7, 2007's, beta release with three watersheds, to the 2007 to 2008 public release and population with other data and watersheds (Steiner et al. 2008). In fact, the database continues to grow, adding between 1 and 2 million data records a year. At the decadal anniversary of public availability, the authors set out to examine the impact STEWARDS has had on the scientific community, conservation programs, and the general public.

Data in STEWARDS were collected by a number of USDA ARS locations, some of which have documented the various data collection efforts in the literature. The six regional watersheds established after authorization by Senate Bill 59 (USDA 1959) all have database documentation paper series published. Marks (2001) introduced …