We discuss the first phase of development of the Volusia Sandhill Ecosystem, a teaching landscape on the grounds of the Gillespie Museum, on the DeLand, FL, campus of Stetson University. Since its initiation in 2011 with the planting of a canopy of 80 trees, undergraduates and community volunteers have contributed to the site's development as an urban-habitat fragment of the Pinus palustris (Longleaf Pine) forests that once dominated the sandy ridges of Central Florida. In the first 5 years since its establishment, the site has provided hundreds of undergraduate students opportunities to participate in site development and interpretation, including the design of new outdoor activities that have been incorporated into the museum's K—6 programming. The Volusia Sandhill Ecosystem is a case study for how, with volunteer labor and modest funding, a small but visible corner of a university campus has been developed as a community-based environmental project, a research site for the undergraduate curriculum, and an urban forest with environmental ben efits.