A group of arborists from Victoria has volunteered to travel to Tasmania to carve out tree hollows for the critically endangered swift parrot.

Five trees containing hollows the birds use for nesting were recently cut down by people collecting firewood in Buckland in south-east Tasmania.

Tasmania Police tracked those who destroyed the trees to Hobart and the federal Department of the Environment is now investigating if the group broke national environment laws.

A vehicle full of firewood at Buckland, where swift parrots use trees to nest. ( supplied: Dejan Stojanovic )

It is estimated there are only 2,000 swift parrots left.

They spend winter on the mainland and are expected to start arriving in Tasmania next month. Once there, they will need a place to breed.

Green Army volunteers have already built more than 300 nest boxes for the parrots and now arborists in Victoria have offered to carve hollows into trees.

Scientist Dejan Stojanovic said 20 volunteers were travelling to Buckland to recreate the lost tree hollows with chainsaws.

"It's a very interesting new technique they pioneered on the pink cockatoo in the Murray Mallee in Victoria," Dr Stojanovic said.

"They've been used over there so as far as we can tell there's no reason it wouldn't work for swift parrots."

Major Mitchell cockatoos nest in an artificial tree hollow carved by arborists in Victoria. ( supplied: DELWP/ Victor Hurley )

The offer of help has come from the Victorian Tree Industry Organisation (VTIO).

VTIO's Grant Harris said arborists were very skilled at using chainsaws on trees.

"That's our bread and butter so for us it's not too difficult, it probably takes about two hours to do one hollow," Mr Harris said.

The carving method VTIO uses was developed at the Victorian Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (DELWP) by senior biodiversity officer Victor Hurley.

Dr Hurley pioneered the method after bushfires burnt trees that were home to Major Mitchell cockatoos (also known as the 'leadbeater' or 'pink' cockatoos) in the Mallee region in 2014.

He explained that a chainsaw is used, followed by a power tool to carve out a hollow.

"We go to a lot of care to make sure we only remove about 10 to 20 per cent of the circumference of the bark at any point," Dr Hurley said.

"It is less damage than if you lost a branch from a tree ... the wounds heal over."

An arborist demonstrates how to carve an artificial hollow into a tree to allow birds to nest. ( supplied: DELWP )

The carved tree hollows worked in the Mallee. The cockatoos returned to the burnt area, used the artificial hollows, and bred in similar numbers than before the fire.

Dr Hurley has now written a manual to teach others how to carve out the nesting hollows.

"For all hollow-dependent fauna in Australia there are ongoing issues with a shortage of cavities," he said.

"We have one of the highest proportions of cavity-dependent birds and mammals of anywhere in the world so the loss of large hollow-bearing trees is recognised as a threatening process in nearly all states in Australia."

Artificial tree hollows have also been created in Victoria for the critically endangered Leadbeater's possum.