David Tarver joined the Aquatic Plant Management Society in 1973 after graduating from Northwestern State University (NSU) in Louisiana with a BS degree in Wildlife Management. He received a Masters Degree in Botany also from NSU in 1974, and joined the Florida Department of Natural Resources where he provided aquatic plant management extension services and law enforcement duties while serving as the northwest Florida regional biologist. David was hired by Eli Lily and Dow to work in Sonar herbicide product development from 1981-1994, and SePRO from 1995-2011 to become Director of Technical Development. During this period, David was a leader in developing strategies to apply fluridone herbicide alone and in combination with other tools to bring hydrilla under maintenance control in Florida public lakes and rivers.

David is a 39-year member of APMS and a Charter Member of the Florida (1976) and Texas APMS (1988) Chapters. He was President of both FAPMS (1986), and APMS (2002). He served on the FAPMS Board of Directors from 1983-1987 and the APMS Board from 1995-2003. David was the publisher of Aquatics magazine from 1985-2009. He also worked on the APMS Education and Outreach Committee where he coauthored the Understanding Invasive Aquatic Weeds workbook distributed to more than a half million students through printed copies and as an interactive online resource.

For nearly four decades, David Tarver personified innovation and customer service – both with regulatory agencies and the private sector, spending countless hours on Florida lakes and elsewhere in the country, assessing problems and creating management solutions, then passing that information to managers and stakeholders.