diff --git a/conda/bootstrap.py b/conda/bootstrap.py
index 4bf55fcfc8..3eb9072691 100755
--- a/conda/bootstrap.py
+++ b/conda/bootstrap.py
@@ -417,7 +417,7 @@ def build_spack_env(config, update_spack, machine, compiler, mpi,  # noqa: C901
             f'"parallel-netcdf@{pnetcdf}+cxx+fortran"'])
 
     if esmf != 'None':
-        specs.append(f'"esmf@{esmf}+mpi+netcdf+pnetcdf+external-parallelio"')
+        specs.append(f'"esmf@{esmf}+mpi+netcdf~pnetcdf~external-parallelio"')
     if lapack != 'None':
         specs.append(f'"netlib-lapack@{lapack}"')
         include_e3sm_lapack = False
diff --git a/conda/default.cfg b/conda/default.cfg
index b9f3eefc47..580505bc8e 100644
--- a/conda/default.cfg
+++ b/conda/default.cfg
@@ -30,6 +30,6 @@ netcdf_c = 4.9.2
 netcdf_fortran = 4.6.0
 petsc = 3.19.1
 pnetcdf = 1.12.3
-# scorpio = 1.4.1
-scorpio = None
-parallelio = 2.5.10
+scorpio = 1.4.1
+# parallelio = 2.5.10
+parallelio = None