However, owner RichardBurdon says the $31,000 cost is "minor" compared with thestation's overall investment into land management and fire risk mitigation.
The fire, which destroyed about 30ha of regenerating native vegetation, was lit on September 23 to clear bracken fern from Glen Dene but was fanned by a northwesterly wind and escaped into the Craig Burn gully, a popular tramping and hunting access route into the Matatiaho Conservation Area.
Five helicopters and volunteer fire crews from Hawea, Luggate and Wanaka, as well as local Department of Conservation offices, were used to extinguish the blaze.
Doc Wanaka area manager Paul Hellebrekers said the $31,000 fire suppression costs for the Craig Burn fire were finalised last month and a letter had been sent to Glen Dene Station outlining the costs and seeking reimbursement.
A decision on any prosecution in relation to the fire was likely to be announced next month by Otago conservator Marian van der Goes, Mr Hellebrekers said.
Mr Burdon said the costs incurred by Doc would be repaid, but there were an "enormous amount" of other associated costs that were being met, such as fencing, spraying and re-seeding along reserve boundaries and working with Doc in post-fire monitoring.
"[$31,000] might be the cost of controlling the fire but in real terms it's just a minor part of the ongoing management of high country land.
"Most of the costs were associated with the short term of putting out a fire but the real costs in behind the scenes are the land management and what it takes to develop and control the bracken fern," Mr Burdon said.
The fire had been a "big setback" for Glen Dene which recently had a large area of native vegetation approved for the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry-managed Emissions Trading Scheme.
Mr Burdon is also among a group of Wanaka farmers working with Doc and the Queenstown Lakes District Council to review bracken management and mitigate future risk of fires escaping.
Doc had also investigated an early morning vegetation fire at the base of Mt Iron in Wanaka on January 5.
Its "probable" cause was "associated with the powerlines that ran through those properties", Mr Hellebrekers said.
A report on the blaze was now with the National Rural Fire Authority (NRFA) and Doc had made a reimbursement claim against the authority's rural fire-fighting fund.
NRFA southern manager Russell Barclay, of Dunedin, said the claim would be processed and all parties paid out before litigation.
