Introduction to the USDA-NRCS Stewardship Tool for Environmental Performance (STEP).

The Stewardship Tool for Environmental Performance (STEP) was developed as a decision support tool that can be used by USDA-NRCS field staff to implement the lessons learned in the Cropland - Conservation Effects Assessment Project’s (CEAP) national and regional watershed analyses of agricultural conservation practice impacts on soil and water quality.  STEP relies on the Agricultural Policy Environmental eXtender (APEX) model runs and data developed through CEAP alongside USDA-NRCS institutional conservation planning and agronomic expertise to support field-level conservation planning. STEP’s design maintains flexibility to incorporate future enhancements without requiring significant structural changes or development of new field staff methodologies.

STEP was designed to support the conservation planning process as part of the Conservation Desktop Streamlining Initiative (CDSI) in USDA-NRCS. STEP enables conservation planners to evaluate potential water quality benefits of various management techniques and conservation practices for a given soil and climate in order to develop conservation plans to meet resource concerns specific to the site for which the conservation plan is being developed. Specifically, STEP evaluates conservation practice and nutrient management effects on dynamics of sediment and phosphorus in surface water, dynamics of nitrogen in ground and surface water, and pesticide risk in leaching and surface runoff.

STEP functions on a points system. Field office staff provide soil and the climate information for a particular land unit as inputs into STEP, which uses this input data to determine inherent site vulnerabilities and establish minimum points required for each contaminant and each loss pathway in order to reduce nutrient, sediment, and pesticide losses below a goal threshold. STEP assigns points to each nutrient and pest management technique and conservation practice based on their relative effectiveness for each contaminant and loss pathway at that particular site. In order to keep all nutrient and pesticide losses below an established or identified threshold goal, the sum of points for all management techniques and conservation practices included in the conservation plan must meet the minimum points required for each contaminant and each loss pathway.