diff --git a/ci/install-upstream-wheels.sh b/ci/install-upstream-wheels.sh
index 79fae3c46a9..855336ad8bd 100755
--- a/ci/install-upstream-wheels.sh
+++ b/ci/install-upstream-wheels.sh
@@ -13,7 +13,7 @@ $conda remove -y numba numbagg sparse
 # temporarily remove numexpr
 $conda remove -y numexpr
 # temporarily remove backends
-$conda remove -y cf_units pydap
+$conda remove -y pydap
 # forcibly remove packages to avoid artifacts
 $conda remove -y --force \
     numpy \