Northern Rocky Mountain gray wolves officially return to state control Thursday, when their removal from Endangered Species Act protection is published in the Federal Register.

That means Montana and Idaho hunters will be back in the business of controlling wolf populations this fall. A bipartisan rider in the 2011 federal budget bill ordered the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to reinstate its 2009 wolf delisting decision and immunized it from further court challenges.

"The fact is, after years of lawsuits, the delisting got stuck in unacceptable gridlock, acrimony and dispute," Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar said in a conference call Wednesday morning. "It was consuming resources that could be spent recovering for other species."