Concern for potential effects on California spotted owls can constrain forest restoration projects intended to reduce large, severe wildfires and drought-related tree mortality in the Sierra Nevada. We developed an acoustically assisted survey design that could increase the efficiency and effectiveness of project-level surveys for spotted owls, allowing surveys to be completed in a single year. To do so, we deployed 126 autonomous recording units (ARUs) and identified spotted owl vocalizations using BirdNET. We evaluated spatio-temporal patterns in vocalizations near occupied territories and a survey crew’s ability to locate owls based on these detections. After 3 weeks of acoustic surveys, ≥1 ARU within 750 m of all 17 occupied territories obtained spotted owl detections across ≥2 nights. Surveyors naïve to territory occupancy and location located owls in 93%-100% of occupied territories with ≤3 active (broadcast calling) surveys near ARUs with detections. We also developed a statistical model to identify and prioritize areas across the Sierra Nevada for different survey methods (active only/acoustically assisted/no surveys) based on the expected probability of occupancy. Collectively, these findings can help managers streamline the survey process and thus increase the pace of forest restoration while minimizing potential near term adverse effects to California spotted owls.