Can you post a photo? I don't have a feel for the size of the space or how steep the banks are or how polished or manicured this area needs to look.

There are a number of herbaceous, blooming plants of various heights as well as a number of wet-tolerant shrubs that might work.

River birch trees to get going and replace the trees that were lost. Pretty shrubs: vernal witch hazel, (Hamamelis vernalis) redtwig dogwood, meadowsweet (Spirea alba), buttonbush, (Cephalanthus) or swamp azalea, (Rhododentro viscosum). All do OK in wet soil and are pretty easy to grow and most have fairly pretty blooms, leaves and twigs in the winter.

Sorry, I'm just seeing these responses as the email notifications ended up in spam. I am at work now so will take pictures tomorrow morning and get them posted. Thanks everyone!

b4 you Plant anything, hire a bulldozer guy to remove & gather tree/vine stumps and burn. Then in the Fall, Plant deciduous azaleas, dogwoods, river birch, native berry producers. Options are quite vast but goal is to plant a few spring, a few summer, a few autumnand a few winter interest plants so it looks pretty all the time. You can google plants for your zone that offer 4-season interest. Kinder on your pocketbook. But clean first, Plant later.

There may be restrictions about the amount of work that can be done or plants to be used along a stream or waterway that is not completely restricted to your property. You should probably check with your local municipality or Department of Natural Resources before proceeding to make sure you are following accepted procedures.

Native plants that grow in similar surroundings/conditions are always the best choice.

Okay, so I got home with a little daylight left to take some pictures. We are on a wooded lot with a lot of huge pine trees and other types as well, easily 40 feet tall, so lots of leaves, pine straw and pine cones. As you can see, it's a mess. The 3rd* (i had 5 originally, but only 3 posted) picture gives a good idea of how high the water can get during a long, heavy downpour, basically where all that debris meets the grass.

Having a photo is a big help in this case. Because this is an active storm drain, with perhaps a somewhat undersized set of culverts for the current flow in heavy storms causing water to back up, you don't want to remove plants or even the woody and leafy debris which all help to retain the soil and prevent erosion. If you try to clear this area, you will be creating something of a nightmare where soil starts washing away, leading to further erosion. As GG48 mentioned, there are often legal limits on what you can do within an area like this where there is active water flowing, and for good reason. Right now it looks stable, and that is how you want it to remain.

That doesn't mean you have to continue looking at it as is, however. Above the high water line, remove grass, plant a bed of low evergreen shrubs, and plant some tenacious, shade-tolerant evergreen groundcover such as pachysandra. Give it a defined edge where it meets the lawn, most likely a buried masonry edge along with a buried strip edging between the brick or block and the lawn to keep the lawn on its own side of the mowing strip. Having an intentional, crisp edge to the lawn will go a long way towards making this area look tidier. Having shrubs and a groundcover will give you something closer than the stream area and the neighbor's fence for your eye to rest, and the tree trunks will just be a backdrop with the ground level not visible unless you walk close to the lawn edge. Choose something that will easily remain under 5', perhaps 3'-4'.

Any trees that are actually standing dead you may want to remove for safety, cutting them to ground level but leaving the roots for soil stability. I would keep cutting the vines back (I still see a fair number of vines, but those may be leftover cut vine stems) and removing sprouts and foliage as they appear on the vines to eventually kill them. Just cutting them once won't kill them, so you will need to stay on top of it for a couple of growing seasons. Plan on spending 10 minutes to half an hour weekly since you don't want them to be able to generate energy from their leaves. Most herbicides are completely illegal to use within a certain distance of water, so if you do decide to go the herbicide route to kill off the vines, you will need to hire someone who is certified to work in wetland areas with wetland-rated chemicals. IMO keeping up with removal of sprouting leaves on a regular schedule is a lot less expense and inconvenience than having to hire a wetlands specialist.

If you want to add a few shrubs to areas of the woods, chose higher up where it doesn't flood as regularly and plant at times of the year where you are least likely to have major storms and high water, perhaps mid-fall. Some shrubs that might be OK with the high shade and occasional excess water include Fothergilla, Clethra/summer sweet, Diervillea (which has the common name of bush honeysuckle but isn't a honeysuckle/Lonicera), or in a brighter spot, Itea virginiana/sweetspire or winterberry holly/Ilex verticillata. (You need at least one male for every few female berry producers for the holly). All are native plants that I would expect to do fine in the area and have either flowers or berries and several have nice fall foliage colors.

I too was thinking the culvert size was small, but I think there is a pile up of debris causing the water not to flow because of the large water line above the culvert where the grass is dead. Since I have one of these gems in my yard and so does my neighbor I am going to tell you what we did and were allowed to do (Illinois). First clear all the debris and make sure the flow of water is at a pitch that it is removed from your property timely. This will involve a civil engineer giving you a report (a couple of hundred dollars in my area). You will likely need a bob cat to move the earth if the wash has brought in lots of soil. Then have the engineer give you suggestions for addressing. I put down a liner and had rock brought in to place on top of the liner that will not wash away. My gully washer goes into a lake so I recirculate water from the lake but I had to get permission to do it and so did my neighbor. I think you need to get with your neighbor so that you have a comprehensive plan on both sides of this problem. Frankly since they have a fence just ask them if you can fix the problem so it will look nice and offer to give them a letter that your improvements along the creek will not be a claim to their property and that the property lines will be honored at resale. Once the water flow problem is addressed you can then begin landscaping. This in my opinion means waiting for a hard rain to see how the changes actually work. Do you have a lake that this is going into?

No bobcat and no soil disruption. You will regret taking that route. The grass stops where it does because that is where it was planted and where shade starts. I honestly don't see a water line. Something like bellburgmaggie's last photo won't work with your site because of the slope.

@NHBabs, this is a lot of help, thank you for your advice. Yes, you are seeing the remnants of the cut vines. We cut some in the fall, and just went back out last week and cut them in several more spots. They are no longer attached the ground at any point, but they're still hanging onto the trees they have grown to. We will keep up on those. There is one tree trunk maybe 10 feet tall that has a large vine and it's leaves wrapped around it. We're going to leave that for a bit to see if there's any new growth or if the vine completely killed it. If the latter is the case, we will cut down the bare trunk and leave the roots.
I really appreciate the recommendations on how to landscape this relatively easily and without disrupting the functionality.

@bellburgmaggie, the creek does flow into a lake the next neighborhood over from ours. I absolutely love what you did with your creek. It is so beautiful and I'd love to have something as cleanly defined and well-landscaped as yours is. However, I think the costs associated will keep that out of budget for us and I will have to remain jealous of your beautiful rock border. I do appreciate everything you've recommended though, and thank you for that.

Baby steps. Don't get discouraged, you'll get there!

First off, you want the pitch of the ground of the culvert to be sufficient that it is carrying the water across your property properly and not standing creating a mosquito breeding ground for all kinds of diseases including encephalitis and Zika. If you can hand dig this out that if fine but many cannot. And I had to laugh my head off, don’t disrupt the soil, what in the world do you think all that water flowing across your property is doing? Part of the issue is that you have major erosion going on and you want to address it. Next you have issues with the vines. You will need to make sure they are all dead before planting anything. Be extremely careful if you use herbicide because you are nearwater. And do not use anything that kills honeybees like sevin. Some strategically placed boulders will give you a lot of option while also holding back the soil from further erosion. Larger peeble rock for dry beds would be beautiful along with plants that bloom throughout the summer. I did a mock up for you but you still have some clearing out to do. It all takes time and be patient because most often the best time to plant is the fall while the best time to prep the land is summer. I did a mock up for you so you can get an idea of how beautiful it can be.

Some ideas I found on the web.

Well, another approach instead of carrying water across and through your property, is to create a rain garden where at least some of the water is absorbed into the ground on your property. That often does entail making changes to the soil to increase its water holding capacity. Lots on instructions on how to do this can be found online. There is also the possibility of doing both, holding some water and channeling some, they are not mutually exclusive. Kind of like the concept of a fountain made from nesting bowls that empty into each other. If you design in properly, you will lessen the amount of water that rushes through the culvert and slow down its erosive power.

There really isn't much wrong with this aside from the fact it is in manicured suburbia. Driving around, about half of my world looks like this - or at least it will after the snow melts.

I'd give it some time to see what pops up. I don't know how different North Carolina flora is from here, but around here a place like that would have skunk cabbage, maybe some trout lilies or trilliums. The trees may not have been the only things struggling with the vines. I'd also recommend trying to ID as many plants there as you can. Some plants you can get rid of by looking at them sideways. Others require nuclear options done repeatedly. Some will behave themselves, and stay put and hold soil. Others will take over the stream, your yard, and make a serious attempt at getting in the house. Knowing the difference can mean the difference between a reasonable compromise and a nightmare.

There may be an obstruction somewhere that should be cleaned out, but aside from that I wouldn't mess much with the water flow. If mosquitoes are a problem, mosquito dunks are a good idea. It looks like the water is coming out of the culvert, so staking one or two dunk down near that outlet would work.

Correct Pinkmountain, that is what I did. I have a water garden and large stones which slows down the flow, but there is still an enormous amount of silt that comes in as the entire water shed literally comes down a hill, down my driveway and then into my culvert to go into the lake, and into a major creek through the center of town.

Apparently my photo/video of my raging stream after a hard rain did not post. This is actually the second half of my raging river and it involves a Class A Dam (high hazard).

bellburgmaggie Thanks for putting that mockup together! Gives me a great idea of how beautiful I can make this look with some work. The tree and flowers you show on the opposite side of the creek is the neighbor's property, but there's still a lot I can do above the culverts and on our side.

l pinkmountain I don't really know that a rain garden would slow the water through the culvert, as the other side of the culvert/uphill stream is across the street and not on our property.

mad_gallica I suppose there could still be an obstruction, but it's only during seriously heavy torrential rains that we've seen it rise to the grass-line...during times when there's also flash flooding throughout the city. We have been here since late spring last year and I don't recall seeing anything of interest pop up along the water, but we will continue to keep an eye out. I have a friend who can come help me ID what trees are there and anything else we might have missed, but there doesn't seem to be much aside from the trees & vines.

Thanks everyone for your help and advice. I came into this with the idea of doing some landscaping this spring, but you've all convinced me to use the spring and summer to clean things up and get ready for planting in the fall instead.

Show the picture to your neighbor and ask if you can clean up and plant since you have to look at it. They may be fine with you making it look nice. I did that at my house and my neighbor was thrilled. We both now have something nice to look at and enjoy. (I provided the labor and she paid for some of the plants). Besides if they have vines growing on their property you will never get rid of the problem until it is addressed. My “stream” was a grass culvert that remained soaking wet all summer and when we tried to mow I’d end up with deep rivets in my grass. I got so sick of it that is why the stream was invented. Word of caution, the chiggers thrive next to streams, use deet whenever you work around this area and immediately shower after. I learned it the hard way. Please enjoy your spring/summer and remember plants go on sale in the fall!

The publication linked by Gardengal48 looks great and lays out the pitfalls to avoid and steps to take along with pros and cons of various possible courses. It also gives you contact info on all the organizations and government entities that may have jurisdiction over your stream so you don't take steps that may cause problems either legally or environmentally. And since it is a publication local to your state it should serve as a great resource!

You are correct, the raingarden lessens the amount of water flowing into the culvert.

Plant some fruit trees near the water? A good spot for a mini orchard.

Native plantings that work well along stream edges: