Six state grants totaling more than $130,000 are going to Leelanau County organizations to help plan for the future.

The state Department of Environmental Quality and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have approved $933,300 in Coastal Management Grants for 41 groups or units of government for 2008-2009.

A concentration of projects in one of the state’s smallest county is notable.

“It’s very unusual,” said Christy F. Weaver of the state coastal management program.

The largest grant approved for the county — among the highest funded projects for this year statewide — is $45,000 for the Fishtown Preservation Society, Inc. The only other request funded at this level was submitted by the Parks Division of Wayne County for the Elizabeth Park Canal Shoreline Restoration study. The moneys will be put toward developing plans for the Fishtown area which has been purchased and will be preserved for future generations.

Efforts to contact a spokesman from the group were unsuccessful.

Two peninsula group with a focus of public education about the Great Lakes are also grantees. The Great Lakes Children’s Museum ($15,000) and the Inland Seas Education Association ($23,000) were also among those with approved grant requests.

“Our goal is to connect the front of our property, which also houses the Maritime Heritage Alliance and the Watershed Center with the Leelanau Trail at the rear of the property,” said John Noonan, executive director of the Great Lakes Children’s Museum.

The money will be used to conduct a natural features inventory and a natural resources protection plan for the property where the group hopes to build an educational trail.

“The front third (of the property) is developed the back two-thirds is natural and wetlands,” Noonan said. “The inventory will let us know what we have and how it would be best used.”

Funds received by the Inland Seas will be used to host five, day-long Day on the Bay events in which representatives of civic organizations learn about what they can do to protect the bay. The events will also include an afternoon trip on the schooner Inland Seas in which samples are taken an trends on the Great Lakes are discussed, education director Christine Diana said.

The Village of Suttons Bay and Suttons Bay Township will receive $23,000 to be used in a joint planning effort for its waterfront. Likewise, the Village of Northport and the Leelanau Township Community Foundation (LTCF) has been granted $20,000 for use in the next step in the Smalltown Design Initiative. The community has been working with students from Michigan State University to generate future plans for the village.

A special meeting is slated for May 20 in which more than 100 “before and after” concepts for village features will be presented. Participants will also be surveyed about their vision of the waterfront village.

This will be followed by another meeting organized by the foundation scheduled May 29.

“We’ll take those ideas and talk about what people would like to see what happens next,” Merry Hawley, LTCF executive director said.

Also receiving a grant is Bingham Township, a $5,000 allotment which will be used to develop site plans for Boughey and Hendryx Parks.