Hi
How do you define safe?? For animals?? I'm not familiar with what type trees you'd have.I'm sure everything I use would be unavailable to you.
I've used mostly tropical hardwoods such as teak,vera and rosewood. Rot is a constant problem and i've been experimenting making branches from expanding foam and acrylics. Going to try flexible PVC for my new setup.
gary

You can buy some from blackjungle.com that are for humid terrariums and they say will not mold or rot.

Unfortunately I have about $5 to my name so ordering wood isn't an option :-( Thats why I was wondering about local woods

We don't really have alot of pine here.. mostly Maple, Oak, Fir, Cedar, and some Spruce

Cedar is no good, and I dont think fir is either. You might want to ask google. cypress is good, or grape wood. Even pine or cedar can be ok, but they need to have been leached out. The wood you see in pet stores has usually been treated this way, but I would still be careful about using it.

-DH

Avoid most (any if you question it) conifers that have a strong scent, that's my way of doing it. I've used natural madrone (live in s. OR), the best ones are roots that have been exposed to the elements for a few years, or even branches off a dead tree. dead growth > new, that almost always works better for me. And then sterilyze by method of chioce (I stick mine in the freezer for 48 hours). Also used Oak, but usually just bark chunks rather than branches.

Jordan, freezing isn't a good method for steriling things. Many organism [bacteria, fungus, snails, etc] can withstand freezing temps. They commonly do so in the wild.

Oak, look for pieces that have been bleached by the sun, roots are great, but be sure to bake them as mentioned to get the critters out of them = )

I am wondering also. I want to use either oak or maple and this is just for a plant terrarium and there will be no animals. I have read to bake it on low heat to kill bugs. Does this sound acceptable?