I can't help you on what our state parks allow.  Sorry but it brought to
mind something very scarey that happened to me a month ago.  I have
property in West Virginia.  I love to go up there for the weekend
(especially three day ones) pitch my tent and sit back and look at the
mountains.  I bring ferrets along and they've always had a ball.  I keep
them on their leash and let them dig away.  I've never had any problems
until last time.....
 
There is the old log that they love to climb on and dig under.  A couple
weeks after camping on labor day weekend, I noticed a huge lump on one of
the kids - then the mate also had a huge lump.  Upon inspection of them,
there looked like a hole going down to the lump.  Well, it scared me to
death so on the phone to my vet - at home - on a sunday.  She told me to
bring them in on monday.  I started thinking back and remembered that the
girl who had a lump on her tummy was climbing on the log - the boy who
had a lump on his back was digging under the log.  Now, I always check
the kids for bugs, fleas, ticks etc while and after camping.  These lumps
were really big too - tumor size.  Sure enough they were a larvae of
basically a horsefly.  She copied the page from her medical book and it
all made sense.
 
Horseflies lay their larvae at entrances to burrows and such and usually
the larvae attaches itself to an animal normally a rabbit.  It then
burrows down inside where it's warm - suck the blood - and chills for a
couple weeks.  Then it starts to grow and when grown crawls out.  The
larvae laying time here on the east coast is late summer - early fall.
 
So be very careful when camping out around downed trees that have been
there a long time and burrows.  Luckily the kids have came through fine
and no worse for the wear.  But what a lesson for me.
 
Faith
[Posted in FML issue 3931]