{"id":44657,"date":"2017-01-30T05:59:06","date_gmt":"2017-01-30T12:59:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=44657"},"modified":"2026-04-16T05:46:34","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T10:46:34","slug":"progress-versus-growth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2017\/01\/30\/progress-versus-growth\/","title":{"rendered":"Progress versus Growth"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"WintryWintry day Coyote – Nikon D300, f6.3, 1\/1600, ISO 640, +0.7 EV, natural light, not baited or called in<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>

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“The ugliest thing in America is greed, the lust for power and domination, the lunatic ideology of perpetual Growth – with a capital G. ‘Progress’ in our nation has for too long been confused with ‘Growth’; I see the two as different, almost incompatible, since progress means, or should mean, change for the better – toward social justice, a livable and open world, equal opportunity and affirmative action for all forms of life. And I mean all forms, not merely the human. The grizzly, the wolf, the rattlesnake, the condor, the coyote, the crocodile, whatever, each and every species has as much right to be here as we do.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

~ Edward Abbey<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>

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\"StormyStormy weather, mountains and golden grasses, Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge, Beaverhead County, Montana<\/span><\/p>\n

I’ve been worried about our public lands staying in public hands for quite some time now but since November I have become more and more concerned about our public lands being under assault. Our public lands have now officially been devalued by our own elected officials so they can be more easily sold off. Sold to be destroyed, sold so that only the rich can enjoy them, sold so that the already fat wallets of the wealthy get fatter.<\/p>\n

When our public lands are under assault so are the wild lives that exist there, the coyotes, deer, birds, bears and all the rest who make it their home.\u00a0 There are some that say the state can better care for those lands. I’d call them fools but we humans are all distant cousins so I’ll tame that down a bit and call them misled instead. Intentionally and deliberately misled.<\/p>\n

\"No<\/a>No Trespassing – View of Flaming Gorge Reservoir (Sign added by me)
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Land grabs and illusions.<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is what the land grabbers intend to do. They will sell of the public land you fish on, hunt on, camp on, hike on, recreate on. Those lands will become the stories that children of the future will hear with these words at the beginning of the story, “Once upon a time” and those stories will be about the wilderness that was lost and there will be no happy endings.<\/p>\n

No Trespassing signs will become the ugliest graffiti of our lifetime and we will all lose. For those who think it won’t happen, that is because the powers that be want you to believe it won’t. They have spent a lot of money, time and energy creating illusions to make sure people believe what they say. For their purposes not ours.<\/p>\n

It has already happened. It is happening still. We need progress, we don’t need growth when growth is greed.<\/p>\n

Mia<\/p>\n

Utah: In 2011 Gov. Gary Herbert (R-UT) said it\u2019s \u201cworth exploring\u201d selling off much of his own state to help pay down the national debt, agreeing with an earlier call from Rep. Dennis Ross (R-FL).<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>

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There are some that say the state can better care for those lands. I’d call them fools but we humans are all distant cousins so I’ll tame that down a bit and call them misled instead. Intentionally and deliberately misled.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":174995,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[511,1513,223,100,3464,1022,981,12,608,26],"tags":[733,4002,2664,5637,4050,102,373],"class_list":["post-44657","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-antelope-island-state-park","category-beaverhead-county-montana","category-centennial-valley","category-coyotes","category-daggett-county","category-davis-county-utah","category-flaming-gorge-national-recreation-area","category-montana","category-red-rock-lakes-national-wildlife-refuge","category-utah","tag-canis-latrans","tag-coyote","tag-edward-abbey","tag-land-grabs","tag-snow","tag-wildlife","tag-winter"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/red-rock-lakes-edward-abbey-mia-mcpherson-5656.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-bCh","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":76602,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2020\/12\/31\/2020-photographic-year-in-review\/","url_meta":{"origin":44657,"position":0},"title":"2020 Photographic Year In Review","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"December 31, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"This is my 2020 photographic year in review. 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I finally got around to editing the clip yesterday.","rel":"","context":"In "Gray Treefrogs"","block_context":{"text":"Gray Treefrogs","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/wildlife\/gray-treefrogs\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Gray Treefrog clinging to a leaf, Sequoyah National Wildlife Refuge, Oklahoma","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/gray-tree-frog-5361-mia-mcpherson-.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/gray-tree-frog-5361-mia-mcpherson-.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/gray-tree-frog-5361-mia-mcpherson-.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/gray-tree-frog-5361-mia-mcpherson-.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 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