Much of the upland area formerly covered by native woodland and later grazed by sheep is once again forested. The trees were planted by the Forestry Commission between the 1930s to 1950s to create a renewable national supply of timber.

Heavily forested areas of the Afan valley above Pontrhydyfen.

Japanese larch is planted on the deeper, better drained soils on the lower slopes of the valley with Norway spruce in the wetter boggy areas. The Corsican, Scots and other pines are grown in the drier rocky slopes up to 300 metres with Sitka spruce grown on the plateaux, where no other trees would grow and flourish.

As areas of forest are cleared more native broad leaved trees such as birch, oak and alder are being planted which will encourage wildlife and return the valley to its former state.

Once a supplier of timber to the mining industry, today the forest produces over 100,000 tons of timber for the production of paper, board for furniture, fencing materials and also supplies local sawmills at Gyfylchi and Cwmafan. Each year the sale of locally grown Christmas trees attracts parents and children from nearby towns.