Los Ruiles National Reserve, National reserve in Cauquenes Province, Chile

Los Ruiles National Reserve protects native Maulino forest in two separate sections: Los Ruiles, 29 hectares in the Curanilahue River valley in Chanco municipality, and El Fin, in the Pino Talca valley in Empedrado. The forest, at the transition between Valdivian temperate rainforest and Chilean matorral, shelters about 80 tree and shrub species, including ruil (Nothofagus alessandrii).

The reserve was established in 1982 as a protected area to preserve endangered tree species and wildlife populations in central Chile. This protection marked an important moment in conservation efforts, as the region's native forests had faced serious threats over many decades.

The reserve is named after the ruil (Nothofagus alessandrii), a southern beech endemic to Chile and listed as critically endangered. Its leaves are used in local traditions to treat ailments, and the tree grows naturally only in small coastal patches of central Chile. The 1.5 km Los Ruiles trail passes under a century-old stand of ruiles, hualos and coigües.

The Los Ruiles section lies beside the paved Chanco–Cauquenes road at kilometre 29, while El Fin is 15 km from Empedrado on the asphalt route from Talca via Constitución. The Los Ruiles trail runs 1.5 km and takes about three hours on foot. The reserve has a reception area, picnic tables and two footpaths.

The reserve protects one of the northernmost populations of the monito del monte (Dromiciops gliroides), a small marsupial of the mature forests of southern Chile and Argentina. It shelters in the Maulino forest, where about 80 tree and shrub species grow, among them boldo and quillay. The reserve is also the northern limit of the trees Weinmannia trichosperma and Embothrium coccineum.