The preschool's manager Leslie Goddard said it was inspired by the stories of older children in the community engaged in protecting the environment by clearing traps throughout the neighbourhood.
"Our kaiako have taken their time engaging with the children, ensuring they understand the 'why' behind pest control."
Checking the traps was often the first thing the children wanted to do, Goddard said. A tally had been set up, ready to count the rats caught.
Bell was helping as part of the Lake Ōkāreka backyard trapping initiative, which has over 60 traps in the community.
"We live in a beautiful place filled with birdsong and native species and if we can instil a love for conservation at such a young age then I think we're well on our way to a predator-free Aotearoa by 2050."
Since its beginning in May, the backyard trapping initiative has caught 48 rats throughout the Lake Ōkāreka community.
The local Forest & Bird team were also seeing success in its mahi.
A spokesperson said Conservation Week is a great time to reflect on the annual work and success of conservation volunteers.
"Forest & Bird's Rotorua branch took out the organisation's annual branch award this year for their vision and tenacity in protecting some very rare native plants and birds for the benefit of the environment and their community."
The award recognised the branch's pest control work that had developed over the last 20 years.
Pests captured included possums and rats, and even the odd wallaby.
Forest & Bird's Rotorua branch working on traps by Tikitapu (Blue Lake) Photo / Supplied
It focused on Tikitapu (Blue Lake) in an effort to protect the few remaining native mistletoe plants that possums had not gotten to.
Branch member Mike Goodwin said to protect mistletoe ''you also have to protect birds, because it's birds that spread the seeds".
Consequently, people had been noticing increasing numbers of tui, kereru and other native birds in gardens and the project boundaries.
Goodwin said from just 217 mistletoe plants in the early 2000s, close to 3500 individual plants were recently identified.
Rotorua Trails Trust operations manager Kris O'Driscoll said its mahi focused on maintaining the environment around Rotorua's network of trails, including in Whakarewarewa Forest.
This included monthly working bees clearing drains to protect the trail surroundings and also weed removal, such as cutting back the blackberry and gorse.
Rotorua Trails Trust use the UBCO to get around. Photo / Supplied
It did so using an UBCO, an electric vehicle used to navigate the extensive trails.
She said using them was eco-friendly and economical.
Rotorua Trails Trust worked with groups such as Whakarewarewa Pest Free, which placed traps around the network of trails.
The aim was to increase native biodiversity.
Whakarewarewa Pest Free representative Anthony Garea said he and volunteers have been busy over the winter with more than 1000 trees planted at 5 Mile wetland. The volunteers have also cleared land of scrub and blackberry for another 6000 plantings next winter.
Overall the group has caught 3500 pests in the last 12 months with U3A at Tikitapu.
"School groups have made over 400 more trap boxes and we are working on distributing kākā nesting boxes around Rotorua in the hope we can increase their numbers."
