Forestry students return to the Dixon Center throughout their tenure at Auburn for short courses and other field exercises. Auburn students enrolled in other natural resource curricula often use the Center for field trips, special problems courses, and short courses. The Departments of Zoology and Wildlife Sciences, Entomology, Horticulture, and Agronomy are among those who have made use of the Center's facilities and natural resources. The Dixon Center is also available for use by other colleges and universities. The Alabama Forestry Commission, the Alabama Cooperative Extension System, other state and federal natural resources agencies, and various forest industries use the Center for in-service training education activities.
Programs are available for elementary and secondary school groups as well as the general public.
The Dixon Center has served as the site of research projects in a number of fields. Forestry research has centered around herbicide use, forest growth and yield, and forest regeneration. Wildlife research has included work with indigo snakes, gopher tortoises, and gray squirrels. The resource base at the Center includes a pecan orchard, which has served as a site for a number of studies by scientists from Auburn's Departments of Agronomy, Entomology, and Horticulture. The Center's natural resource base is amazingly diverse for a property its size.