Dave Woods

Dave Woods is the Senior Scientist at Ozark Underground Laboratory and Executive Director of the Tumbling Creek Cave Foundation. Dave graduated from Missouri State University with an M.S. in Biology studying fish behavior and toxicology. He spent 13 years as a Fisheries Management Biologist with the Missouri Department of Conservation where he played a pivotal role in managing game and non-game fish populations across Missouri’s rivers, streams, and reservoirs. He led multidisciplinary planning teams, advanced conservation efforts in priority watersheds, and coordinated numerous habitat improvement projects on both public and private lands. In his current positions with the Ozark Underground Laboratory and the Tumbling Creek Cave Foundation, Dave performs groundwater recharge delineations and land use investigations for significant karst resources and rare, threatened, and endangered species habitats, while also implementing conservation practices and providing educational programs at Tumbling Creek Cave, a National Natural Landmark.