diff --git a/configs/common/modules_lmod.yaml b/configs/common/modules_lmod.yaml
index d93368772a..47a0c59efe 100644
--- a/configs/common/modules_lmod.yaml
+++ b/configs/common/modules_lmod.yaml
@@ -143,6 +143,10 @@ modules:
             'MADIS_ROOT': '{prefix}'
       mapl:
         suffixes:
+          ^esmf@=8.9.1~debug ~openmp: 'esmf-8.9.1-noopenmp'
+          ^esmf@=8.9.1+debug ~openmp: 'esmf-8.9.1-debug-noopenmp'
+          ^esmf@=8.9.1~debug +openmp: 'esmf-8.9.1'
+          ^esmf@=8.9.1+debug +openmp: 'esmf-8.9.1-debug'
           ^esmf@=9.0.0~debug ~openmp: 'esmf-9.0.0-noopenmp'
           ^esmf@=9.0.0+debug ~openmp: 'esmf-9.0.0-debug-noopenmp'
           ^esmf@=9.0.0~debug +openmp: 'esmf-9.0.0'
diff --git a/configs/common/modules_tcl.yaml b/configs/common/modules_tcl.yaml
index 0249e04ac1..bd237abdae 100644
--- a/configs/common/modules_tcl.yaml
+++ b/configs/common/modules_tcl.yaml
@@ -162,6 +162,10 @@ modules:
             'MADIS_ROOT': '{prefix}'
       mapl:
         suffixes:
+          ^esmf@=8.9.1~debug ~openmp: 'esmf-8.9.1-noopenmp'
+          ^esmf@=8.9.1+debug ~openmp: 'esmf-8.9.1-debug-noopenmp'
+          ^esmf@=8.9.1~debug +openmp: 'esmf-8.9.1'
+          ^esmf@=8.9.1+debug +openmp: 'esmf-8.9.1-debug'
           ^esmf@=9.0.0~debug ~openmp: 'esmf-9.0.0-noopenmp'
           ^esmf@=9.0.0+debug ~openmp: 'esmf-9.0.0-debug-noopenmp'
           ^esmf@=9.0.0~debug +openmp: 'esmf-9.0.0'
diff --git a/configs/common/packages.yaml b/configs/common/packages.yaml
index 49042148f9..91d18f7817 100644
--- a/configs/common/packages.yaml
+++ b/configs/common/packages.yaml
@@ -151,6 +151,7 @@ packages:
       - +shared
       - +external-parallelio
       - any_of:
+        - '@=8.9.1'
         - '@=9.0.0b17'
         - '@=9.0.0b18'
       - any_of:
diff --git a/configs/templates/unified-dev/spack.yaml b/configs/templates/unified-dev/spack.yaml
index dc25760ad7..eb5bc6868a 100644
--- a/configs/templates/unified-dev/spack.yaml
+++ b/configs/templates/unified-dev/spack.yaml
@@ -28,9 +28,11 @@ spack:
   - ufs-weather-model-env ^esmf@=9.0.0b17 ^crtm@=3.1.5
 
   # Mapl with specific esmf tags (list all to avoid duplicate packages)
+  - mapl@2.69.1 ^esmf@=8.9.1
   - mapl@2.69.1 ^esmf@=9.0.0b17
 
   # Various esmf tags (list all to avoid duplicate packages)
+  - esmf@=8.9.1
   - esmf@=9.0.0b17
   - esmf@=9.0.0b18