Emily Moss shudders when she thinks about the bear hunters who descend on her mountain valley each year.

For a week in late October, she is afraid to walk in the forests near her home, worried she might be hit by an errant bullet. She is disgusted by the drinking and partying she said occurs after bear hunters set up camp.

So a proposal to allow more bear hunting has Moss seething.

An Upstate sportsmen’s association is backing a bill that adds a week in December to the mountain-hunting season. The bill also would allow six weeks in the fall to train bear-hunting dogs in the woods.

State wildlife officials and some bear hunters — who say the sportsmen are well-behaved — contend there are more than enough black bears to withstand additional hunting in the southern Appalachian Mountains.

“This is a mountain heritage,” said Robert Chapman, president of the Upper S.C. Bear Hunters and Houndsmen Association. “We’re not out to annihilate the bear.”

But to Moss, more bear-hunting would mean more disruption in the placid Eastatoee Valley of northern Pickens County. She’s primarily upset about the huge parties of sportsmen who roam the hills, hunting bears with dogs.

“Party hunts create an atmosphere conducive to drinking, possibly while driving, all while carrying firearms,” Moss said in a recent letter to state lawmakers.

“That week is an awful week for the sane and sober residents of the valley, and we do not need any more like it.”

Plans to add to the bear hunting and dog training seasons have caused a furor in other circles, as well.

The Humane Society of the United States says the sport is cruel, unnecessary and unfair to the shy and elusive black bear — particularly when dogs are used. Often, hunters use electronic tracking collars to keep up with their dogs, and then they shoot the cornered bears.

“It is just a trophy hunt, where they are after a head or a hide,” Humane Society president Wayne Pacelle said of bear hunters. “For a lot of people, this raises more ethical questions about the suitable treatment of these animals.”

Pacelle’s group has fought attempts to allow or expand bear hunting in states across the country. South Carolina should take particular note, he said, because it has a low population of black bears for a state that allows hunting.

The latest state estimates put the number of bears at 900 in the S.C. mountains. North Carolina has 4,000 mountain bears, and Georgia has 1,200, according to the S.C. Department of Natural Resources.

Hunters such as Richard McAdams of Easley also oppose the bill. He has hunted bears but was so upset about the bill that he helped create a Web site — http://www.scbear.org/ — to fight it.

The Web site says the use of dogs to stalk and kill bears “is already out of control” because it is unfair chase and dangerous to residents near hunting grounds. McAdams said the limited S.C. bear population can’t withstand a big increase in hunting.

MORE KILLING OK

Supporters of the legislation say people should not be concerned. They say the bear population appears to be on the rise.

“I have no doubt there are enough bears” to expand the hunting season, said Skip Still, a Department of Natural Resources biologist. “We support this kind of thing when the resource can stand it. We’re pro-hunting.”

The agency estimated the mountain bear population at 450 last year, but recently revised that to 900 based on its research and that in neighboring states. Studies at the University of Tennessee lend support to the higher number, experts say.

Since 2000, hunters have shot and killed more than 200 bears in S.C. mountains, according to the Department of Natural Resources.

A record 55 bears were killed in 2003. The 34 bears killed in 2005 represented the third-highest harvest since 2000, the agency reports.

Bear hunters say they just want more time to practice a tradition, as well as to train their dogs.

South Carolina’s bear hunting season now is confined to the last two weeks of October. Bears can be hunted only in Oconee, Pickens and Greenville counties. It is illegal to hunt bears on the coast, where a small population exists.

The first week allows “still hunts,” or stalking and killing bears without the help of dogs. During the second week, sportsmen can use dogs to track bears.

Under legislation sponsored by Rep. David Hiott, R-Pickens, South Carolina’s bear-hunting season would include a week in December. Three days would be for still hunts and four days for dog hunts, which draw most of the opposition.

The bill also would allow hunters to have their dogs chase bears through the woods at night for six weeks, beginning in September, to train them for the actual hunts. The new rules would apply only in the mountains of Oconee, Pickens and Greenville counties.

Supporters note other states, such as North Carolina, have longer hunting and training seasons.

The S.C. legislation isn’t close to passing; it remains in a House of Representatives subcommittee.

ROWDY DEBATE

Chapman, who once lived in the Eastatoee Valley, said the bear hunters association is willing to drop the extra time to shoot bears to get six weeks to chase bears as training.

But even that has opposition.

McAdams and Pacelle said bears can overheat and die when chased long distances.

Chapman and Hiott said bear hunters are not rowdy drunks. Most who camp in the Eastatoee Valley are well-behaved and respectful, Chapman said. The Department of Natural Resources reports no undue problems with bear hunters.

“Ninety-nine percent of our people are church-going people,” said Chapman, 55, who has hunted bears since his childhood. “We’re for preserving game. That’s one reason you see more bears than in the past.”

Moss remains skeptical. She said she can’t take an expansion of either the dog-hunting season or the running season for bear dogs.

On many days, the crackle of gunfire and the baying of hounds disrupts the solitude near her mountain home. The Eastatoee Valley, off S.C. 11, is a scenic bottomland ringed by the mountains of the Jocassee Gorges nature preserve.

Said Moss, “I feel like I have a piece of paradise here, except for that one week — when I have a ticket to hell.”

Reach Fretwell at (803) 771-8537 or sfretwell@thestate.com.