The Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve traverses the Tilarán Mountain Range, which is part of the Continental Divide. The area has been most appropriately named Monteverde, “Green Mountain”, for its rich, lush, and of course, green, forest beauty. The Reserve is a 5,000 hectare wildlife sanctuary, with an unique and apealing variety of trees, birds and insect life.

In 1972, a young graduate student named George Powell came to Monteverde to conduct research for his doctoral dissertation about birds. Enthralled by the diversity of bird life, he decided to spend some time studying here in the magnificant cloud forest. During this time, scientists were marvelling at some of the unique species found in the Reserve, such as the endemic golden toad, which is now extinct. Powell, among them, was alarmed by the deforestation taking place in the region and the illegal hunting and speculation with untitled lands. His concern turned into an effort to protect the cloud forests and wildlife with the help of the Guacimal Land Company, the owner of some of the threatened lands. The Company was looking for ways to get rid of squatters in its land. When Powell came along, they decided to donate 328 hectares to him if he could find an organization with the ability and factilities to properly administer and protect the land.

Powell and his wife joined efforts with Wilford Guindon, a resident member of the Pioneer Quaker community that had settled in Monteverde in the early 1950s. The initial 328 hectares (820 acres), would become the core of the Monteverde Reserve. Looking for technical assistance and financing, Powell approached the Tropical Science Center, a Costa Rican scientific, non-profit organization. The TSC had established a program to create wildlife reserves with scientific purposes and environmental education in mind. To obtain the support of the organization, Powell became a member and the incipient reserve was assumed by the TSC.

In 1973, the TSC started an international campaign to acquire land in order to expand and protect the reserve. Many organizations were eager to help, among them: the Explorers Club of New York, the Philadelphia Conservation Society, the New York Zoological Society, RARE Animal Relief Effort, the World Wildlife fund, the Nature Conservancy, the International Council for Bird Preservation and other persons including philantropist photographer John Dunning. Between 1973 and 1978, donations allowed the TSC to acquire more than 1,100 hectares (2,700 acres). In 1974, 471 individuals (mainly scientists and bird watchers) visited the reserve.

In 1975 an additional extension of 554 hectares (1,350 acres) was added. Named Bosque Eterno S.A., this area has been protected by the Quaker community since the mid 1950s as a hydrological reserve. It became part of the Monteverde Preserve under a 90-year administrative contract. Located in the slopes of the Los Amigos Mountain , it had been bought from the Guacimal land Company by one of the first Quaker farmers, Mr. Hubert Mendenhall. Along with John Campbell, Howard Rockwell, and other Quakers, Mr. Mendenhall helped establish a peace-loving and self-sufficient farming community and the land transferred to the Preserve had been in their custody for over 20 years before they sold it to the Quaker community, who in turn handed it to the Preserve. With this addition, the Preserve increased in size to over 2,000 hectares of land.

Between 1975 and 1980, several important confrontations took place. One of them was over the land rights of neighbours who had taken lands in the Peñas Blancas Valley, east of the Preserve. These were public lands and a part of the cloudforest. In order to protect the cloudforest, the Preserve struggled for over 10 years against these local squatters, finally preventing the construction of a road that would cut right through the Preserve to get to the Valley. The squatters wanted this road in order to be able to extract timber, raise and transport cattle, and to increase the value of land in the Valley. The beginning of this road is right at the entrance to the Preserve, where an iron gate stands as a symbol of the struggle to preserve the lands in the Peñas Valley. The squatters did manage to cut a dirt road into the forest all the way to a site known as La Ventana through steep and difficult terrain. In the Valley, they managed to deforest small areas where they built their rustic homes and started farms, while hunting all along for subsistence. However, they were often met by the Preserve ranger patrols led by Wilford Guindon, who managed to curtail these activities to a minimum. To this day, Mr. Guindon remains a member of the Preserve´s rangers, and is regarded with utmost respect by neighbours in the region.

The Preserve did not have to contend only with squatters, but also with the Ministry of Education, which also wanted land in the Preserve (precisely in the Bosque Eterno area) to build a tower for an important national television station. In 1978, the Ministry of Education started to deforest a space in the Los Amigos mountain to build their tower. Once again, thanks to the efforts of Wilford Guindon and other persons, the TSC was able to reach an agreement with the Ministry. The TSC sub-contracted a small piece of land to the Ministry under very strict conservation conditions.