[2] The National Natural Landmark designation includes 403 acres of surface land, representing access to the privately owned cave surrounded by a protection zone.
Since 2011, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service has classified the Tumbling Creek Cave as critical habitat for the snail.
The cave system is partly contained within the Mark Twain National Forest, which could offer some protection for the endangered species's catchment area.
[3] However, the development in the 1990s of a cattle feedlot adjacent to the catchment area generated measured damages to the Tumbling Creek Cave's biodiversity, including a sharp reduction in the population of the endemic cavesnails.
The snails require an exposed rock surface and clean water, but their underground watercourse home was filling up with eroded muck from the above-ground feedlot.