Blake Shelton Reveals Wild New Role
Written by broebling on September 10, 2018
In the event of an apocalypse, do not pass go, do not collect $200, head straight to Blake Shelton’s place in Oklahoma because he will have enough barbecue to last a lifetime.
Surrounded in wooded acreage for privacy, Shelton’s property near his hometown of Tishomingo, Okla. is hard to find, and it’s an ideal place to wait out an apocalypse because Shelton is an avid outdoorsman. Right now, he’s dealing with a hog situation at home.
“Half the time when you go deer hunting in Oklahoma, you’ll end up shooting two, three, four, or even five hogs in a day. Just because they’re coming out and they’re pretty much taking over,” he tells Cowboy & Indians of the invasive species. “You don’t ever even see a deer because these hogs take over an area and push out any native wildlife we have. It’s gone from being cool to see a wild hog once in a while, to now. And now, it’s war.”
Protecting the native habitats has been among Shelton’s top passions in life ever since he started noodling at a young age. But his noodling days are in the past.
“When I was still in high school, we’d go noodling,” Shelton says. “You get in the water, and you just reach your hand down under the rocks, feeling around for a big catfish. That was back when I was hell-bent on killing myself, I think. But not anymore. That’s why God made fishing poles. But I do still watch those noodling videos on YouTube a lot.”
Shelton now has another way to get his nature fix. According to the Associated Press, he’s been appointed to the newly formed board of the Oklahoma Wildlife Conservation Foundation, which is awaiting nonprofit status to launch fundraising efforts supporting the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation.
The state agency receives no funding from the Legislature and runs off revenue from hunting and fishing licenses and federal excise taxes on hunting and fishing equipment. It also manages the state’s fish and wildlife resources and habitat.
