Beech bark disease (an exotic insect-disease complex of the woolly beech scale, Cryptococcus fagisuga and an ascomycete, Neonectria faginata,) infects American beech (Fagus grandifolia) in the Maritime provinces of Canada and much of the north-eastern United States, and is still spreading. There is no practical chemical control for the beech scale and natural predators are not effective in stopping its spread. Some trees show resistance to beech scale attack. Vegetative propagation of these resistant trees using somatic embryogenesis (SE) will help conserving the gene pool and restore disease-free beech to the forest. Somatic embryogenesis was induced from zygotic embryos and young expanding leaves of mature trees. Zygotic embryos were most responsive to induction treatments, with 0-80% of the explants producing embryogenic tissue (ET). The induction rate was significantly influenced by both the collection date and genotype. Immature cotyledonary stage embryos produced the most ET-an average of 13%. Newly expanded leaves from buds of mature trees also produced ET (two cell lines). The ET was cryopreserved, thawed, and regrown. Gel strength had a significant influence on the number of normal embryos that matured, ranging from 18 embryos g^-1 of initial tissue on 0.25% gellan gum, to an average of 147 embryos g^-1 on 0.75% gellan gum. Abscisic acid concentration had no significant effect on embryo maturation. After germination the embryos elongated and formed new leaves and in some cases - a primary root. None of the germinated embryos survived transfer to soil.