Yea, it's safe but you need to wash it and bake it dry. Cholla is some of the dirtiest most disgusting wood because they pick it up from the ground in the desert so lots of things have been moving around, hiding and pooping in it. Because it goes from the ground strait to the box sometimes there is critters hiding in there too. We got warned about scorpions when we bought the last box. Thankfully there weren't any!