Protestors have launched their week-long “bat attack” on the Maules Creek mine site.

Activists have blocked fences and chained themselves to bulldozers to protests the risks posed by the mine to the nearby Leard State Forest.

More than 200 people have turned out in a bid to protect the forest, with many posting about their protest using the Twitter hashtag #LeardBlockade.

While the protest continues, Whitehaven Coal is about to clear more of the forest to expand its mining operation.

Activists say the work will harm a number of bat species.

A spokesperson for the Leard Forest Alliance, Ros Druce, said the action was aimed at ending coal mining in NSW.

“There are precious remnant woodlands proposed to be cleared for coal mines elsewhere in New South Wales, and other communities fighting large new mines as big as this one,” Druce said.

“The thousands of people that have come to Maules Creek will now spread out across the state and they will never let the coal industry and the New South Wales Government do this again.”

Similar protests are targeting Idemitsu’s Boggabri coal mine, which also plans to expand by clearing 1400 hectares of the forest.

Over 250 people have been arrested in the 13 months since direct activism at Whitehaven Coal’s Maules Creek mine site began.