i'm not arguing with how the law works where you live, but that all sounds kind of contradictory. you can't cut and remove the wood, but at the same time you are supposed to maintain that area? how can you do one without the other?
The county will give you the permit to take it as they do not have resources to do it anyway. I have seen stuff set for years and rot away. You have to stay out of the roadway with truck and equipment unless you get a right-of-way permit. Then the Safety police get into it with flaggers and signs. That was also part of our problem we were only half off the pavement.