A FARMER, whose property was wiped out by bushfires, says he was stopped from doing a fuel-reduction burn because of birds.

Leigh Arnold, who has 1000ha at Carlton House, said he wanted to do a controlled burn-off to reduce fuel on the ground, but was prevented from doing it even though he said he could have done so without hurting the bird population.

He said the situation highlights a major issue of fire management that needs to be addressed.

"You can't stop fires, but there are no excuses for a firestorm," he said.

He bought the land about three years ago, but almost 95 per cent of the property and all buildings have now been wiped out.

"I wanted to selectively harvest the bush and reduce fuel on the ground with a burn-off, but I was stopped because the bush was deemed to be potential swift parrot foraging habitat and [because of] two wedge-tailed eagle nests. Well it's all gone now."

A DPIPWE spokesman said with firefighting and recovery efforts still under way, it was too early to speculate on causes or contributing factors to the fire.

"Issues such as those will be looked at when there is an opportunity to examine all the factors in detail," he said.

"It should be noted, however, that there were extreme weather conditions experienced last week which contributed to extreme fire behaviour that affected all land tenures."

Read more on The Mercury.