From 1986 to 1992 McNamee served as a member of the board of directors of the Greater Yellowstone Coalition and as its chairman from 1987 to 1989. The latter period included the Yellowstone fires of 1988 —a trying time for conservation in the Rockies, because the role of natural fire in ecological succession was poorly understood even by many conservationists. He was an active participant for more than a decade in the effort to return the gray wolf to the Yellowstone ecosystem.