Photo by Mark S. Werner.

Sometimes, things work out better than anyone could ever have hoped. So it is with the black bears of Pennsylvania's Somerset County.

Between 1979 and 1984, the Pennsylvania Game Commission trapped 72 black bears in the state's "big woods" counties -- where bears have always been plentiful -- and moved them to the southwestern corner of the state. Some of the bruins went to eastern Westmoreland County, but most ended up in Somerset County.

The plan was to see if bears might thrive there as well.

Have they ever!

Black bears are now common in Westmoreland, Indiana, Armstrong, Fayette and Cambria counties.

They routinely show up -- even if they don't necessarily stay -- in Allegheny, Greene and Washington counties. But Somerset County is clearly the heart and soul of southwestern Pennsylvania's bear country.

"Ever since we reintroduced bears into Somerset County in 1979 and 1980, that population has been doing well," said Mark Ternent, the commission's black bear biologist. "If you look at the trend in harvests in Somerset County over the last 15 years, they've been growing steadily as well."

In the Southwest Region, it's not just the case of a big fish in a little pond. But to really understand just how well Somerset's bear population is doing, you need to view it in the context of the overall state harvest.

In 2006, Somerset County gave up 124 bears to hunters. Only eight other counties -- all of them in the traditional bear range of the north-central and northeast regions -- surrendered more.

"Somerset County could have ranked higher if some of the counties with extended bear seasons weren't included," said Brian Witherite, a PGC wildlife conservation officer in southern Somerset County.

That wasn't any one-year fluke, either. The county gave up more than 100 bears in 2005, as well. Except for 2004, it has ranked in the top 15 counties for bears harvests for the last six years.

There are a lot of reasons for that, but first and foremost is that Somerset County offers some fine bear habitat.

"Somerset County has a good mix of forest land and agricultural land," said Travis Anderson, the commission's wildlife conservation officer for the northern half of the county.

"What the forests can't provide, farmers -- however reluctantly -- do. We trap and transfer lot of bears out of farm fields."

Somerset doesn't get hunted as hard as some other counties. But on opening day, certain areas see good crowds especially groups putting on drives, Witherite noted.

"In the Southwest Region," Ternent said, "bears are hunted, but not with the same intensity as in some of the more traditional bear range."

Which means that Somerset County bears get the chance to grow big. Witherite said he's handled bears that would exceed 650 pounds in the fall, and in 2005, a hunter in neighboring Fayette County took a 733-pound bruin.

Ternent said the chances of running into a very large bear are probably better in the Southwest Region -- and in Somerset County in particular -- than anywhere else in the state.

"I think those bears don't see quite as much hunting pressure and subsequently live longer," he suggested. "And they have a variety of food sources. Chances are there's a state-record bear running around somewhere in that area."

Hunters interested in visiting Somerset County this fall should consider the following hotspots: