BOISE - Some Idaho hunters who prefer to mount all-terrain vehicles to pursue their big-game quarry are chafing at Department of Fish and Game restrictions on where they can ride.

Under current hunting regulations, the state requires armed hunters who head out onto public land in about a third of Idaho's 99 hunting units to stick to established roads, while keeping away from off-road vehicle or jeep trails and areas that are otherwise open to unarmed recreational ATV riders.

The agency says this is to protect big-game herds from the advantage afforded hunters aboard swift, powerful ATVs - and because some hunters who don't use them have complained about the disturbance, as well as violations of the "fair chase" ethic.

On Monday, angry ATV riders told the combined Senate and House resource committees during a hearing at the Capitol in Boise they see the state agency in cahoots with the federal government to limit their access to public lands.

"Idaho Fish and Game has a secret agenda," said Danny Cone, a hunter from Fruitland in western Idaho. "They're basically in a conspiracy with the U.S. Forest Service."

The all-terrain vehicle riders are getting help from Mountain Home Republican Sen. Tim Corder, who wants to strip the state wildlife management agency of much of its authority to regulate where hunters can steer their ATVs on state, U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management territory. Not surprisingly, the state Department of Fish and Game is fighting back, viewing Corder's legislation as an attempt to undermine its ability to manage Idaho's trophy mule deer, elk and other big game as it sees fit.

Fish and Game Commissioner Randy Budge of Pocatello said the rule since 2002 has been enacted in 31 hunting units south of the Salmon River, places where the open country invites riders to head overland to increase their chances of a successful hunt.

Budge said there are already exceptions, too: Hunters can retrieve their game once it's been shot, as well as transport camp equipment in and out of the backcountry. There are special rules for disabled hunters, too.

"The motorized vehicle rule was not enacted for any purpose to restrict or limit anyone's right to drive four-wheelers," Budge said. "It's not at all about a person's right to bear arms. It's simply about the use of four-wheelers as an aid to hunting."

The agency isn't without its allies, with the Idaho Conservation League and outfitters opposing Corder's bills.

Grant Simonds, director of the Idaho Outfitters and Guides Association, mostly blames big game depredation by wolves for hurting his members' businesses. Their ranks have fallen from 4,902 licensed outfitters in 1990, to just about 1,400 now, he said.

But Simonds also contends expanding ATV access would further undermine his industry by damaging big-game herds, habitat and risking unmounted hunters' safety when they encounter fast-moving motorized vehicles on narrow, winding trails.

Proponents of expanded ATV access, however, say foes of the changes are raising phony issues like environmental destruction from renegade riders who blaze cross-country trails as they try to convince legislators to stick with the status quo.

"We are not talking about going off road and destroying any personal or private property or public property," said Mark Sauerwald, of the Mountain Home ATV Club. "We are talking about established, maintained, four-wheel drive trails, that the U.S. Forest Service and BLM land manager has designated as open for those vehicles."