A Duke Pediatrician’s Gift of Trees is Helping Fight Heat and Planting Hope

Dr. Clay Bordley is passionate about growing trees to help restore Durham’s tree canopy

Clay Bordley at his farm
Dr. Clay Bordley raises young trees at his farm just north of Durham. Photo by Travis Stanley.

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Surrounded by waist-high seedlings at the Durham Public School Hub Farm’s Spring Soils Festival, Dr. Clay Bordley is spreading his love of trees.

Affectionally known as “The Tree Guy,” Bordley tells a festivalgoer how black walnut trees, like the one in a nearby pot, make beautiful wood. He tells another about pawpaw trees’ delicious, albeit fleetingly ripe, fruit.

Visit Panther Creek Forest Farm to see how Clay Bordley helps Durham grow one tree at a time. Video by Travis Stanley.

Bordley, an Emergency Pediatrician at Duke University Hospital, raised these trees on his 28-acre Panther Creek Forest Farm in Durham County. Now he’s giving them all away for free to anyone willing to plant them.

“I just want to get them in the ground,” Bordley said.

Since arriving at Duke in 2003, Bordley, 65, has been passionate about helping Duke’s youngest patients. He’s also passionate about growing trees to help restore Durham’s tree canopy.

“Every tree I grow is given back to the people of Durham so they can help the environment, provide shade and make people’s health better,” Bordley said.

A decade ago, he bought the farm to grow organic vegetables with his daughter, Eliza Lawdley. Realizing the land was ill-suited for that purpose, they sought a Plan B. That’s  when Bordley became intrigued by how trees benefit community health by removing airborne pollutants and combating urban heat islands. Inspired by non-profits such as Keep Durham Beautiful, which adds trees to areas of Durham without adequate coverage, he found his farm’s new purpose: a native tree nursery for Durham.

Dr. Clay Bordley gives away one of his young trees at a community event last spring. Photo by Stephen Schramm.

After years of trial and error, including a tangled grove of oaks grown from acorns found on Duke’s East Campus, he’s refined his approach. He now collects seeds from across Durham to plant in soil-filled wooden boxes. After a year of minimal care, sprouts will be ready to thrive in Durham.

“I call this area the ‘test kitchen,’” Bordley said about the boxes housing tender seedlings. “We’re trying to see what wants to grow here.”

Emerging from the soil are pawpaws from seeds gathered along a greenway, white oaks from seeds found in a parking lot, and cherrybark oaks from seeds donated by a former Duke faculty member. Healthy redbuds and tulip poplars rise alongside struggling persimmons and buckeyes.

Each fall, volunteers from the Duke University Medical School and the Nicholas School of the Environment help Bordley separate and pot the seedlings. After a year in pots, the trees are ready to donate to Keep Durham Beautiful and be given away at community events.

After roughly three years and nearing 1,000 donated seedlings, Bordley said he’s still learning about growing trees. But surrounded by boxes and pots filled with young branches reaching skyward, he’s found something he loves.

“I’m a pediatrician, not an expert in trees,” he said. “But I’m a lifelong learner. So, this has been really fun.”

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