Across the Sierra Nevada, fire suppression and logging have densified and homogenized forests. In response, fuels treatments are being implemented to improve forest resilience to increasingly severe fire and drought. However, the implementation of these treatments is constrained by costs, access, and concern for their effects on wildlife. We compared the effects of severe fire, drought-induced tree mortality, and fuel treatments on the occupancy of the California spotted owl (CSO). We integrated CSO data from a regional acoustic monitoring project and a 15-year disturbance and management dataset to compare disturbance and management at both site- and population levels. CSO occupancy was negatively related to severe fire and positively related to drought-induced tree mortality. When considering treatments in isolation, heavier treatments (mean proportion of site treated (MPST) = 1.1%) had a negative relationship with CSO occupancy, while lighter treatments (MPST = 12.8%) had a positive relationship. However, when controlling for drought and fire, there was no significant effect of either treatment intensity on CSO site occupancy. This is the first study to compare the effects of the primary agents of forest change in the Sierra Nevada on an at-risk species and underscores the need for effective implementation of fuels management.