When Gov. Butch Otter spoke to the U.S. House Natural Resources Committee in Washington, D.C., this week, he wanted to make a point about how little wilderness means to his home state.

“There are more people in one day, probably, that play golf on the floating green in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, than visit the Frank Church-River of No Return (Wilderness) in a year,” Otter told the committee. “And that’s just a par 3.”

Well, not exactly.

In a normal summer day, with all tee times filled, the Coeur d’Alene Resort’s golf course can handle about 220 golfers, said Andy MacKimmie, the resort’s head golf professional. But in a tournament like the Governor’s Cup, he can start a foursome on every hole.

“We can accommodate up to 280 golfers in a day with double shotgun starts,” MacKimmie said.

At a 2010 event hosted there by Otter, just 144 people played.

So how does that compare with the 2.3 million-acre wilderness that divides Idaho’s north from south and includes the entire Middle Fork of the Salmon River, an internationally famous river trip?

The Middle Fork alone attracted 10,222 floaters in 2010. Add the Main Salmon’s 8,769 floaters, the 1,229 hunters who bought elk tags and the 13,000 steelhead angler days and you have more than 33,000 people who visited the Frank Church.

That doesn’t include the thousands of hikers and horseback packers who use the Frank Church’s thousands of miles of trail through meadows of wildflowers and past rocky peaks.

The Wilderness Society’s Boise Office Director Craig Gehrke said he wasn’t surprised by Otter’s lack of awareness.

“Wasn’t this the same governor who botched two budget proposals this year?” Gehrke cracked. “I don’t think economics is this governor’s strong point.”

Otter, who was testifying against the Bureau of Land Management’s proposed wild lands inventory, which he and other Western Republicans say could lock up millions of acres as wilderness without an act of Congress.

His press secretary, Jon Hanian, said Otter was responding to the intimation of some Democrats on the committee who said designating lands with wilderness values as “wild lands” would be good for tourism.

“What some failed to examine — and what the governor was trying to point out — was the diverse nature of tourism in our state and the different levels of economic impacts associated with each,” Hanian said.

Otter did make a specific comparison of hikers with “backpacks” and “granola” and golfers.

And national figures suggest he’s right that golfers spend more money per day than hikers: an average of $452, according to the golf industry, compared with the broad $87 to $246 the outdoor industry estimates for hikers.

But river floaters pay outfitters about $1,500 or more for five days on the Middle Fork — not counting the cost of flying in to Indian Creek, staying in motels, eating in restaurants, coming through the Boise Airport and often staying here in town as well, said Dave Mills of Rocky Mountain River Tours.

“I gave a talk to the Salmon River Chamber of Commerce a couple of years ago and I counted 64 businesses in Salmon I wrote checks to,” Mills said.

Fish and Game studies show steelhead fishermen spend an average $326 a day in Idaho, and those going into the wilderness spend more. Grant Simonds, executive director of the Idaho Outfitters and Guides Association, said hunters who are guided in the state spend even more than people on river trips, according to a study done of the impact of river and hunter outfitters on the state’s economy.

But since 1995, outfitted hunting trips have dropped by at least a third in the Frank — a drop Simonds said has to do with wolves. If Otter’s efforts to delist wolves are successful — another reason he was in D.C. this week — it could even increase the wilderness area’s impact on the state.

Add up the 22,000 golfers who hit balls into Lake Coeur d’Alene trying to hit the floating 14th hole every year, and you get about $10 million in economic impact. That compares to the Middle Fork alone.

“The point the governor was making was that while tourism is important, it should not be the only consideration in this discussion,” said Hanian. “He was trying to reinforce multiple use.”

But there are other economic values the tourism comparisons miss, said Bill McLaughlin, University of Idaho professor of conservation social sciences. Wilderness holds water, cleans water, provides habitat and even has measureable value just because it exists, he said.

“People come to business conferences and meetings in Idaho attracted (by) the opportunity to float a river or fly into a backcountry strip,” McLaughlin said.

Most Idahoans recognize the values of wilderness and public lands, said Rick Johnson, executive director of the Idaho Conservation League.

“The governor needs to loosen his fed-bashing grip on the golf club and remember what it means to be an Idahoan,” Johnson said.

Rocky Barker: 377-6484